lp could relieve, the
more she felt it urgent upon her to relieve the wants of others when
this assuagement lay within her actual power.

It may seem strange that, with a mother who had a large-hearted
sympathy with all sorrow, Bettina should have kept her own heart so
closed to the suffering outside it; but no seed can sprout until the
soil is prepared for it, and up to this period of her life the ground
of Bettina's heart had been unprepared.

Now, however, all was changed. She went to balls and dinners, as her
position as Lord Hurdly's wife demanded, but her heart was elsewhere.
She began to economize strictly in her personal expenditure, and
collected all the ready money she could lay her hands on, both from
her husband's allowance and from her own small private fortune, and
sent it anonymously to the Indian famine fund.

This contribution was sent in with no other identification than "From
B.," written on the card which accompanied it. How could Bettina
have dreamed that any living soul would connect her with it?

She was not unaware, however, that she was constantly watched by her
husband. Since she had become interested in her new pursuits he
observed her more closely than ever, and on the morning of the
publication in the papers of the special additions to the famine fund
which contained her own subscription Lord Hurdly, with apparently no
reason at all, read the list aloud to her across the breakfast table.

When he came to the item "From B.," he paused and looked at her
searchingly.

Bettina felt her face turn red.

[Illustration: "'THE MONEY WAS PARTLY MY OWN'"]

"I thought so," said her husband, with a strange mixture of
satisfaction and anger in his hard tones. "I have been expecting some
such foolery as this for some time, and I am not blinded to the
motive behind it. What do you care about those devils of Indian
savages? What does Horace Spotswood care about them? Just as little!
Enough, and too much, of my money has gone already to the prolonging
of their worthless lives. If that graceless cub chooses to go on
wasting money on them he can do it, but I take this occasion to
inform you, Lady Hurdly--and I'd advise you to remember what I
say--that I do not choose that any more of my money shall go in that
direction. Do you understand?"

There was an insolence in his tone which he had never used to her
before. She resented it keenly. Rising to her feet, with an instinct
which forbade her to presi