an icy smile.

"I seem to have found my way into Mr. Brooks' headquarters," she
remarked. "Lady Caroom, I shall hope to see you at the palace shortly."

"Poor me," Sybil exclaimed, as their visitor departed. "She only asked
you, mummy, so as to exclude me. And poor Mr. Brooks! I wish he'd
been here. What fun we should have had."

"Oh, these Etrusians," Lord Arranmore murmured. "I thought that a
bishop was very near heaven indeed, all sanctity and charity, and that a
bishop's wife was the concentrated essence of these things--plus the
wings."

Sybil laughed softly.

"Sanctity and charity," she repeated, "and Mrs. Endicott. Oh!"

CHAPTER VI

THE RESERVATION OF MARY SCOTT

The two girls were travelling westwards on the outside of an omnibus, in
itself to Sybil a most fascinating mode of progression, and talking a
good deal spasmodically.

"It's really too bad of you, Miss Scott," Sybil declared. "Now to-day,
if you will come, luncheon shall be served in my own room. We shall be
quite cosy and quiet, and I promise you that you shall not see a soul
except my mother--whom I want you to know."

Mary shook her head.

"Don't think me unkind," she said. "I really must not begin visiting.
I have only just time for a hurried lunch, and then I must look in at
the office and get down to Bermondsey."

"You might just as well have that hurried lunch with me," Sybil
declared. "I'll send you anywhere you like afterwards in the carriage."

"It is very kind of you," Mary answered, "but my visiting days are over.
I am not a social person at all, you know. My role is usefulness, and
nothing else."

"You are too young to talk like that," Sybil said. "I am ten years
older than you are," Mary reminded her. "You are twenty-eight," Sybil
answered. "I think it is beautiful of you to be so devoted to this
work, but I am quite sure a little change now and then is wholesome."

"In another ten years I may think of it," Mary said. "Just now I have
so much upon my hands that I dare not risk even the slightest
distraction."

"In another ten years," Sybil said, "you will find it more difficult to
enlarge your life than now. I can't believe that absorption in any one
thing is natural at your age."

Mary looked steadfastly down at the horses.

"We must all decide what is best for ourselves," she said. "I have not
your disposition, remember."

"Nothing in the world," Sybil said, "would convince me that it is well
for any girl o