oor little face was so immense that Betty's heart
shook before it. Lady Anstruthers looked up at her with adoring eyes.

"I might have known," she said; "I might have known that--that you would
only say the right thing. You couldn't say the wrong thing, Betty."

Betty bent over her and spoke almost yearningly.

"Whatever happens," she said, "we will take care that mother is not
hurt. She's too kind--she's too good--she's too tender."

"That is what I have remembered," said Lady Anstruthers brokenly. "She
used to hold me on her lap when I was quite grown up. Oh! her soft, warm
arms--her warm shoulder! I have so wanted her."

"She has wanted you," Betty answered. "She thinks of you just as she did
when she held you on her lap."

"But if she saw me now--looking like this! If she saw me! Sometimes I
have even been glad to think she never would."

"She will." Betty's tone was cool and clear. "But before she does I
shall have made you look like yourself."

Lady Anstruthers' thin hand closed on her plucked leaves convulsively,
and then opening let them drop upon the stone of the terrace.

"We shall never see each other. It wouldn't be possible," she said. "And
there is no magic in the world now, Betty. You can't bring back----"

"Yes, you can," said Bettina. "And what used to be called magic is only
the controlled working of the law and order of things in these days. We
must talk it all over."

Lady Anstruthers became a little pale.

"What?" she asked, low and nervously, and Betty saw her glance sideways
at the windows of the room which opened on to the terrace.

Betty took her hand and drew her down into a chair. She sat near her and
looked her straight in the face.

"Don't be frightened," she said. "I tell you there is no need to be
frightened. We are not living in the Middle Ages. There is a policeman
even in Stornham village, and we are within four hours of London, where
there are thousands."

Lady Anstruthers tried to laugh, but did not succeed very well, and her
forehead flushed.

"I don't quite know why I seem so nervous," she said. "It's very silly
of me."

She was still timid enough to cling to some rag of pretence, but Betty
knew that it would fall away. She did the wisest possible thing, which
was to make an apparently impersonal remark.

"I want you to go over the place with me and show me everything. Walls
and fences and greenhouses and outbuildings must not be allowed to
crumble away."

"W