ht save it in time; I could do without this--and this," she told
herself. It is so easy to do without oneself when one's mind is set on
some purpose, but one has no right to expect others to do without,
too--the whole thing would be no good if the others had to; she knew
that. No, the debt could not be paid this way; she had no right to do
it; it was her own fancy, her hobby, perhaps. No one demanded that it
should be paid; law did not compel it; Rawson-Clew did not expect it;
her father considered that it no longer existed; it was to please
herself and herself alone that she would pay it, and her pleasure must
wait.

Possibly she did not reason quite all this; she only knew that she
could not do what she had set her heart on doing with the first of
Aunt Jane's money, and the renunciation cost her much, and gave her no
satisfaction at all. But the matter once decided, she put it at the
back of her mind, and by breakfast time she was her usual self; to
tell the truth, she was looking forward to a skirmish with Uncle
William, and that cheered her.

After breakfast she led Mr. Ponsonby to the drawing-room, and he came
not altogether unprepared for objections; he had half feared them last
night.

"Uncle William," she said. "I have been thinking over your plan, and I
don't think I quite like it."

"I dare say not," her uncle answered; "I can believe it; but that's
neither here nor there, as I said last night, beggars can't be
choosers."

Julia did not, as Violet had, resent this; she was the one member of
the family who was not a beggar, and she knew perfectly well she could
be a chooser. She sat down. "Perhaps I had better say just what I
mean," she said pleasantly; "I am not going to do it."

"Not going to?" Mr. Ponsonby repeated indignantly. "Don't talk
nonsense; you have got to, there's nothing else open to you; I'm not
going to keep you all, feed, clothe and house you, and pay your debts
into the bargain!"

"No," said Julia; "no, naturally not; I did not think of that."

"What did you think of, then?" her uncle demanded; he remembered that
she had the nominal disposal of her own money, and though her
objections were ridiculous, even impertinent in the family
circumstances, they might be awkward. "What do you object to? I
suppose you don't like the idea of paying debts; none of you seem to."

"No," Julia answered; "it isn't that; of course the debts must be paid
in the way you say, it is the only way."

"I