make her stick to her promise," said Bennett,
forgiving the interruption, and perhaps willing to tease Mrs. Bal.

The beautiful Barbara, however, had gathered together her scattered
wits, and was too wise to show that she was being teased. "I know, I
meant to keep you with me this Edinburgh week anyhow," she answered the
girl. "But, sweetest, you won't want to hold me to the promise, no
matter what Mr. Bennett or any one else says, if I tell you that I'm
worrying over your being here? I don't feel it's the right thing for
you. And it's certain Grandma will change her will if she hears you're
living with me. It's a miracle I didn't dry up in my part to-night from
sheer anxiety and absent-mindedness. You'd hate me to _fail_ through
you, dear one, I know."

"Oh, yes--anything but that," Barrie exclaimed, tears in her eyes.

Alas, if only some other name than that of M. P. Bennett had added
itself to her list of admirers, all might have been well for Barrie with
sister Barbara, at least for a little while! As it was, the girl's fate
was sealed. So much the better for me: yet my fool of a heart ached for
her disappointment, instead of leaping for joy at my own good luck.

Mrs. Bal looked at the girl with an odd expression on her charming face,
painted for the stage. There was compunction, if not remorse, in the big
brown eyes, but there was no relenting. She liked Barrie and enjoyed her
childish adoration, but she loved herself, and she wanted to "land"
Morgan Bennett. The girl would have to be sacrificed; still, those
rising tears gave Barbara pain to see. She would really have been glad
to make Barrie happy, if the creature's youth and beauty had not been an
hourly peril for her.

"Don't look so disconsolate, dear," she said. "You're going to have a
glorious time. And if wet eyelashes are a compliment to me, they're just
the opposite to Mr. Norman."

"Is it Mr. Norman the novelist?" Bennett wanted to know.

"Yes. And he's going to let Barrie help him with a story--or else he's
putting her into one, I'm not quite sure which."

Barbara threw him this bit of information with a sweetly casual air, but
it was one of the cleverest things she ever did, on the stage or off.
Somehow, with a smile that flashed over us all with a special meaning
for each--affection for Barrie, a benediction for me, and a secret
understanding for Bennett--she contrived to convey to him the idea that
her little sister was already bespoken. No