tion. Arthur was standing on the outskirts of the group,
apparently a little dull.

"She enjoys herself always," I answered. "She is of that disposition.
Still----"

She put her hands up to her ears.

"Come, I won't be lectured," she exclaimed. "Seriously, I wanted you
here. I had something to say to you--something particular."

"Waiving the other matter, then," I said, "I am wholly at your service."

"I may be prolix," she said quietly. "Forgive me if I am, but I want you
to understand me. I am beginning to see that I have adopted a wrong
position with regard to a certain matter which we have discussed at your
rooms and at Argueil. I want to reopen the subject from an entirely
different point of view."

"You mean," I said, "the subject of Isobel?"

"Of course! The first time I came to see you," Lady Delahaye said,
looking up at me with penitence in her blue eyes, "I was horrid. I am
very, very sorry. I did not know then who Isobel was, and I was angry
with everyone--with poor Will, with the child herself, and with you. You
must forgive me! I was very much upset."

"I will never think of it again," I promised her.

"Then, again, at Argueil," she continued, "I adopted a wrong tone
altogether. Yours was the more natural, the more human point of view.
There are certain very grave reasons why the child would be very much
better out of the world. A life of seclusion would, I believe, in the
end, when she is able to understand, be the happiest for her. And
yet--she ought to have her chance!"

"I am glad that you admit that," I murmured.

"Now I am going to ask you something," she went on. "You will not be
angry with me, I am sure. Do you think that a girl of Isobel's age and
appearance is in her proper place in bachelor quarters, living with
three young men?"

"I do not," I admitted. "I look upon it as a most regrettable necessity.
Still, you must not make it sound worse than it is. We have a
housekeeper who is the very essence of respectability, and Isobel is
under her care."

"I want to make it no longer a necessity," Lady Delahaye said, smiling.
"I want to relieve you and your conscience at the same time of a very
awkward incubus. Listen! This is what I propose. Let Isobel come to me
for a year! I shall treat her as my own daughter. She will have plenty
of amusement. There are the theatres, and no end of scratch
entertainments where one can take a girl of her age who is too young for
society. She will mix