e first
touch of day and held it longest. A little lake lay at its foot, and
there was the old house where he and Helen had spent so much of the
summer while he and she were abroad!

"Where does Miss Moffatt intend to go?" asked Travers.

"That's it. Her ideas at present are typical of her condition. 'Snip
the cord that holds me,' she said to me to-day; 'beg father to give
me a handful of blank checks and old Mousey'--that's what she calls
the housekeeper--'buy a nice nurse for me in case I need one--a nice
un-nurse-like nurse,' she stipulated--'and let me play around the world
for a few months to see if I can find my real self hiding in some cranny;
then I'll come back and be good!' The girl's a fool, but most girls are
when they've been brought up as she has been. Moffatt is at his wits'
end. Young Clyde Huntter is on the carpet just now. Think of that match!
think of what it would mean to Moffatt! There are times when I regret the
club and cliff-dwelling age where women are concerned."

"Now, now, my dear friend, please remember my sex."

Helen ran from Richard to Ledyard. "We're all fagged, and the June night
is sultry. After all, girls, even women, should be allowed a mind of
their own! Take me home, Dick, I'm deeply offended." She smiled and held
out her hands.

"If they were all as sane as you, Helen," Ledyard's glance softened. "You
are exceptional."

"Every woman is an exceptional something, good friend, if only an
exceptional fool. I'm rather proud of Margaret Moffatt's determination to
have her way, and that idea of finding herself in some cranny of the old
world is simply beautiful. I wonder----"

"What, Helen?"

"I wonder if an old lady like me, a lady with hair turning frosty, might,
by any possibility, find _her_ real self left back there--oh! ages, ages
before--well, before things happened which she never understood?"

Ledyard's eyes grew moist, but he made no reply.

It was three days later that Priscilla Glenn received a note from
Margaret Moffatt, but she had already been prepared for it by Doctor
Ledyard and Mrs. Thomas.

"Since they think I need a nurse," the note ran, "will you call at eleven
to-morrow and see if you consider me sufficiently damaged to require your
care? From what father says, I am prepared to succumb to you at once.
Both father and I like strong oppositions!"

The June weather had turned chilly after the brief spell of heat, and
when Priscilla was ushered into Marga