e we walked almost in silence. Then Isobel turned towards
me with a new gravity in her face, and an unusual hesitation in her
tone.

"Arnold," she said, "Lady Delahaye has been pointing out to me one or
two things which I had not thought of before. I suppose she meant to be
kind. I suppose it is right that I should know. But----" her voice
trembled--"I wish she had not told me."

"Lady Delahaye is an interfering old cat!" Arthur exclaimed viciously.
"Don't take any notice of her, Isobel."

"But I must know," she answered, "whether the things which she said were
true."

"They were probably exaggerations," I said cheerfully; "but let us hear
them, at any rate."

"She said," Isobel continued, looking steadily in front of her, "that
you were all three very poor indeed, and that I had no right to come and
live with you, and make you poorer still, when I had a home offered me
elsewhere. She said that I should disturb your whole life, that you
would have to give up many things which were a pleasure to you, and you
would not be able to succeed so well with your work, as you would have
to write altogether for money. And she said that I should be grown up
soon, and ought to live where there are women; and when I told her about
Mrs. Burdett she laughed unpleasantly, and said that she did not count
at all. And that is why--she wants me--to go there!"

Again the shadow of tragedy gleamed in the child's white face. Her face
was strained, her eyes had lost the deep softness of their colouring,
and there lurked once more in their depths the terror of nameless
things. To me the sight of her like this was so piteous that I wasted
not a moment in endeavouring to reassure her.

"Rubbish!" I exclaimed cheerfully. "Sheer and unadulterated rubbish! We
are not rich, Isobel, but the trifle the care of you will cost us
amounts to nothing at all. We are willing and able to take charge of you
as well as we can. You know that!"

Ah! She drew a long sigh of relief. It was wonderful how her face
changed.

"But why is Lady Delahaye so cruel--why is she so anxious that I should
not stay with you?" she said.

I laughed.

"Lady Delahaye is mysterious," I answered. "I have come to the
conclusion, Isobel, that you must be a princess in disguise, and that
Lady Delahaye wants to claim all the rewards for having taken charge of
you!"

"Don't be silly!" she laughed. "Princesses are not brought up at Madame
Richard's, without relations or frien