a blushed, and moved uneasily in her chair.

"Please don't," she begged. "I do not wish to think of anything of the
sort. My uncle says that presently I am to help him."

"To help him," Mrs. Trevor Harrison repeated thoughtfully.

Virginia nodded.

"Yes! I don't exactly know how, but that is what he said."

Her chaperon looked thoughtful for a moment. So there was a motive
somewhere, then! But, after all, what concern was it of hers? She was an
old friend of the Duge family, and Phineas Duge had made it very well
worth her while to look after his niece.

They were interrupted by some callers. It was an informal "At Home"
which Mrs. Harrison was giving in honour of her young charge. Soon the
rooms were crowded with people, and Virginia, slim, elegant, perfectly
gowned, looking like a picture, with her pale oval face and wonderful
dark grey eyes, was the centre of a good deal of attention. And in the
midst of it all a girl, whom as yet she had not noticed, touched her on
the arm and drew her a little away. She started with surprise when she
saw that it was Stella.

"Come, my dear cousin," Stella said, "I want to have a little talk with
you. Won't you sit down with me here? I am sure you have been doing your
duty admirably."

Virginia was a little shy. She was not quite sure whether she ought to
talk to her cousin. Nevertheless, she obeyed the stronger personality.

"Of course I know," Stella said, spreading herself out on a sofa, and
smiling in amusement at the other's slight embarrassment, "that I am in
disgrace with my beloved parent, and that you are half afraid to talk to
me. Still, you must remember that you owe me a little consideration, for
you have taken my place, and turned me out into the cold world."

"You must not talk like that, please," Virginia said quietly. "You know
very well that I have done nothing of the sort. When my uncle sent for
me, I had no idea that you were not still living with him."

"I lived with him for three years," Stella said, "after I had come back
from Europe. I call that a very wonderful record. I give you about
three months."

"I don't know why you should say this," Virginia answered. "I find my
uncle very easy to get on with so long as he is obeyed."

Stella smiled.

"Ah, well!" she said, "I don't want to dishearten you, only you seem
rather a nice little thing, and I am afraid you don't quite understand
the sort of man my father is. However, you'll find out, and unti