rom becoming worse; and even this insufficient oversight must be
discontinued now, since Aunt Regina would monopolize her care. If she
took the matter to heart, it was no more, she thought, than she had a
right to do, seeing that Derek was almost like a younger brother, and,
with the exception of Uncle James in Paris, and Aunt Regina in New York,
her nearest relative in the world.

As she glanced up at him from time to time she reflected, with some
pride, that no one could have taken him for anything but what he was--a
rising young New York banker of some hereditary line. As in certain
English portraits there is an inborn aptitude for statesmanship, so in
Derek Pruyn there was that air, almost inseparable from the Van Tromp
kinship, of one accustomed to possess money, to make money, to spend
money, and to support moneyed responsibilities. The face, slightly stern
by nature, slightly grave by habit, and tanned by outdoor exercise, was
that of a man who wields his special kind of power with a due sense of
its importance, and yet wields it easily. Nature having endowed the Van
Tromps with every excellence but that of good looks, it was Miss
Lucilla's tendency to depreciate beauty; but she was too much a woman
not to be sensible of the charms of six feet two, with proportionate
width of shoulder, and a way of standing straight and looking straight,
incompatible with anything but "acting straight," that was full of a
fine dominance. That he should be carefully dressed was but a detail in
the exactitude which was the main element in his character; while his
daily custom of wearing in his button-hole a dark-red carnation, a token
of some never-explained memory of his dead wife, indicated a capacity
for sober romance which she did not find displeasing.

"Then what would you do about it?" he asked, at last, pausing abruptly
in his walk and confronting her.

"There isn't much choice, Derek. Human society is so constituted as to
leave us very little opportunity for striking into original paths. Aunt
Regina has told you many a time what was possible, and you didn't like
it; but I'll repeat it if you wish. You could send her to a good
boarding-school--"

Never!

"Or you could have a lady to chaperon her properly."

"Rubbish!"

"Well, there you are, Derek. You refuse the only means that could help
you in your situation; and so you leave Dorothea a prey to a woman like
Mrs. Wappinger. You'll excuse me for mentioning it; but--"