e
while I was giving Aline's message to Mrs. Bal, and though she looked as
if she hadn't slept, to me she was more lovable than ever. I tried to
convince myself that Aline was right; that this girl and I were made for
each other; that, if I could take her away from Somerled, she and I were
bound to be happy together forever after.

Mrs. Bal explained that she was later than usual because she had not had
a good night, and her chief maid, in reality a trained nurse, had been
giving her electric massage.

"Now I feel equal," she added, "to tackling the world, the flesh, _et le
diable_. Mrs. West is the world. Morgan Bennett's the _flesh_(he weighs
two hundred pounds!) and--I shall be the devil. I always am at a
rehearsal. But the mood shan't come on while I'm with your sister. Now I
must go and get dressed. I'll not be fifteen minutes. Really! You don't
know what I can do in the flying line, when I choose. You may stay and
amuse--my little sister."

I knew better than to ask questions. If the girl wanted sympathy she
could find it in my eyes, but she would resent pity. I praised Mrs. Bal,
and found that I'd struck the right note.

"Yes!" Barrie exclaimed. "Isn't mother--I mean Barbara--gloriously
beautiful? She wants me to call her Barbara, and I shall love it. I
shall love to do whatever she wants me to do, I'm sure, because she's
such a darling. Everybody must want to do what she wants them to do,
whether it's right or wrong--though she wouldn't want anything she
_thought_ wrong, of course. Just fancy, she's given me heaps of pretty
things. I begged her not, but she would make me take them--a string of
pearls, and this ring--my very first!" (How I wish that I had put her
"very first" ring--or kiss--on the finger she displayed!) "And two
bangles--and she's going to pay back Sir S.--I mean Mr. Somerled" (so
she has her own name for him!)--"the money he lent me for my father's
brooch. Barbara doesn't want the brooch. I'm to keep it. And she says
she'll give me an allowance--but she expects Grandma to leave me
everything in her will. _I_ don't--and I'd rather not, though
moth----Barbara thinks I shall some day be quite well off. I fancied we
were very poor, but Barbara says Grandma must have got back nearly all
that was lost, by saving."

I guess that the girl was making talk to show me how well satisfied she
was with everything; but whenever she met my eyes she looked away, to
interest herself in some photograph or or