decided to put his fortune
to the test; and as he looked out of his window at Cherry Orchard and
noted the misty blue haze which foretold a day of real summer heat, he
told himself that on such a day as this there could be no need to fear a
reverse in his present luck.

He whistled as he dressed, and when the breakfast-bell rang he went
downstairs feeling at peace with himself and all the world.

"'Morning, Chloe. What a day!" He stooped and kissed his sister as he
passed behind her chair, and she looked faintly amused at the unusual
salutation.

"Yes. A beautiful day." Her deep voice expressed little pleasure in the
morning's beauty. "Are you going anywhere particular that the fine
weather fills you with such joy?"

"No--only over to Greengates." He was so accustomed to making this reply
that it came out almost automatically and certainly caused Chloe no
surprise.

"It's Iris' birthday, isn't it, Bruce?" Cherry flatly refused to endow
her uncle with the title which rightly belonged to him. "What are you
going to give her?"

"Give her? Well, come round here, and you shall see."

Nothing loth, Cherry obeyed, and stood beside him attentively while he
opened a small leather case and took out a pair of earrings each
consisting of a tiny, pear-shaped moonstone dangling at the end of a
thin platinum chain.

"Earrings! But Iris hasn't any holes in her ears, my dear!" Cherry's
consternation was genuine.

"I know that, you little goose! But these don't want holes--see, you
screw them on like this."

He took one of her little pink ears in his fingers and screwed on the
earring deftly.

"There, run and look at yourself," he commanded, and she trotted away to
an oval glass which hung on the wall between the long windows. As she
moved, Cheniston passed the remaining earring to his sister.

"What do you say, Chloe--is it a suitable present for her ladyship!"

Chloe took up the little trinket with a rather dubious air.

"Somehow I don't think I can fancy Iris wearing earrings," she said; and
Bruce, who had a respect for his sister's opinion which she herself did
not suspect, looked rueful.

"But, Chloe, why not? You always wear them?"

"Certainly I do." As a matter of fact she did, and the pearls or
sapphires which she affected were as much a part of her personality as
her black hair or her narrow blue eyes. "But then Iris is a different
sort of person. She is younger, more natural, more unsophisticated; and
I'm