I have hitherto said nothing about the Bank, for the best of
reasons--I hate it. I hated it, I think, from the day when a letter
from one of my father's friends introduced me to it, until the day
when the letter from the legal firm of which Roger's uncle had been
the brilliant head released me from it. I do not think, however, that
many people knew this. I did my work as well as I could, accepted my
periodical advances in salary with a becoming gratitude, saved a
little each year, and quieted my eruptions of furious disgust with the
recollection of my mother's unhindered disposal of her little legacy
since the day I left the university.

If anyone had told me that on a day in early autumn I should suddenly
come into a thousand pounds a year and freedom, I should have caught
my breath at the very idea, and here was the thing, a fact
accomplished, and here was I, not only quite self-contained, but sober
beyond my wont, and ready to take the Bank and all its stodgy horror
upon my shoulders, if with it I might have had one thing--one woman!
The world was before me, where to choose, all the far corners and
reaches for which I had inherited the hunger with the blood that ran
in my veins--and if I might only have been the first to find one
lonely, insignificant point on the Atlantic coast, my heart would have
journeyed there, content, and ceased (or so I thought) its wanderings.
Truly our joys are tempered for us, and no shorn lamb was ever more
carefully protected from the winds of heaven than we from too much
joy. It is an actual fact that I regarded my resignation from the
drudgery of twelve years, the disposal of my rooms and furniture, the
heartening preliminaries with the lawyers, and my booking at the
steamship company's offices, with less interest than the successful
transportation of Margarita's wedding gift.

It was with a real thrill of pleasure that I drew out my small
savings--a little over a thousand pounds--and with the breathless
assistance of Sue Paynter and a famous actress of her acquaintance
selected the most perfect single pearl to be purchased for that money.
One of the heads of the great firm whose name has been long associated
with American wealth and luxury himself lent a discerning hand to the
selection, and for the first time I tasted the snobbish joy of sitting
at ease in a dainty private room while respectful officials brought
the splendours of the Orient to my lordly knees, and lesser buyers
hu