g to accept a subordinate position, and that many little things jar
and fret you, just because it is a new thing to be under subjection. It
is certain to be trying at first, but if you have patience--"

Ned stopped her with an exclamation, half amused, half irritated.

"Patience--patience! My dear girl, you don't understand of what you are
talking! You surely don't imagine that it is about my own dignity that
I am anxious! I should not allow any personal slight to disturb my
equanimity, for I did not make this change without counting the cost."

"But it is so different when it comes to the test. However brave you
have resolved to be, you cannot help being annoyed and fretted. I know!
Oh, I know quite well," declared Lilias, with an elaborate forbearance
which seemed to have an irritating effect upon the hearer. He drew in
his lips, as if struggling against a hasty reply, and when he spoke it
was in a tone of studied moderation.

"Come and sit down, dear, and let me thrash this out! It is your right
to know exactly how matters stand, and I will try to explain them to
you. What affects me affects you now, so I look to you to advise and
counsel. No one can help me as you can; no one has so much right to
speak; so let me begin at the beginning, and try to make all clear to
your dear little mind. You know that at my father's death I had to give
up my own dream of going into a profession, in order to carry on the
Works for the benefit of the family. It had been decided that Frank,
the second boy, should take this place, but he was still a youngster,
and could not then have taken so responsible a post. It was a blow to
me, for it was anything but the sphere which I should have chosen, and
it was hard to have to give up all my own dreams--"

"It must have been! I can sympathise with you, for I know the feeling.
Nothing tries me more than to have my plans upset, and it is constantly
happening in a house like this, where there are so many others to
consider. And it must have been bad for the business too, for you knew
nothing about it, and had no experience--"

Ned coloured, and made an uneasy movement with his shoulders. As a
matter of fact, his early days of authority had been accompanied by
mistakes which he had been glad to forget, though he had mastered the
details of the business in a surprisingly short space of time. It was
not pleasant to hear a reminder of his inexperience from the lips of his
_fian