ree at Eton. It behooved the only girl of
the family to put her shoulder to the wheel if the machine were to be
kept going on its uphill course. Lord Marchmont had speculated
desperately and with disastrous results during the past five years. His
wife was hopelessly extravagant. And, of late, visions of the bankruptcy
court had nearly distracted the former.

It had filtered round among his daughter's admirers that money, not
rank, would win the prize. But somehow no one had expected Hereford
Wingarde, the financial giant, to step coolly forward and secure it for
himself. He had been regarded as out of the running. Women did not like
him. He was scarcely ever seen in Society. And it was freely rumoured
that he hated women.

Nina Marchmont, moreover, had always treated him with marked coldness,
as if to demonstrate the fact that his wealth held no attractions for
her. On the rare occasions that they met she was always ready to turn
aside with half-contemptuous dislike on her proud face, and amuse
herself with the tamest of her worshippers rather than hold any
intercourse with the fabulous monster of the money-markets.

Certainly there was a surprise in store for the world in which she
moved. It was also certain that she meant to carry it through with rigid
self-control.

Meeting her two brothers at lunch, she received the half-shamed
congratulations of one and the sarcastic comments of the other without
the smallest hint of discomfiture. She had come straight from an
interview with her father whom she idolized, and his gruff: "Well, my
dear, well; delighted that you have fallen in love with the right man,"
and the unmistakable air of relief that had accompanied the words, had
warmed her heart.

She had been very anxious about her father of late. The occasional heart
attacks to which he was subject had become much more frequent, and she
knew that his many embarrassments and perplexities were weighing down
his health. Well, that anxiety was at least lightened. She would be able
to help in smoothing away his difficulties. Surely the man of millions
would place her in a position to do so! He had almost undertaken to do
so.

The glad thought nerved her to face the future she had chosen. She was
even very faintly conscious of a mitigation of her antipathy for the man
who had made himself her master. Besides, even though married to him,
she surely need not see much of him. She knew that he spent the whole of
his day in t