he broad stairway.

"I wonder if you would give me five minutes after the meeting, Miss
Heth?" said the young man's voice behind her. "There's a--a matter I've
wanted very much to speak to you about."

Cally's heart seemed to jump a little.

"What is it that you want to speak to me about?" she asked coolly, not
turning. And, to her own surprise, she brought her other foot up on
the stair.

"Well, it concerns the Works," said Vivian.

And he added at once, hastily: "Oh, nothing that you need object to at
all, I hope. Not at all...."

She had stopped short at the fighting-word, and turned, pink-cheeked.
Certes, there was a point at which _noblesse oblige_ becomes mere flabby
spinelessness.

And upstairs Mrs. Heth, complacent right up at the front, craned round
her neck, and thought that Cally was very long in coming....

"Yes? What about the Works?" said Cally, her breath quickening.

"Oh, I don't mean to detain you now, of course--"

"But now that you have detained me?" she pursued, with no great polish
of courtesy.

The young man raised a hand and pushed back his hair, which was short
but wavy. It was observed that he wore, doubtless in memory of his
uncle, a mourning tie of grosgrain silk, replacing the piquant
aquarium scene.

"I could hardly explain it all in just a few sentences," said he,
affecting reluctance, "and I--certainly don't want to give you a wrong
impression.... To begin quite at the end, I've been wondering if I--I
might be allowed to make one or two small improvements there, at the
Works, I mean,--in fact, out of a--a sort of fund I have."

Carlisle stared at him spellbound. She stood on the bottom step of the
old grand stairway, one gloved hand on the balustrade; and, as she so
stood, her eyes just came on a level with those of the tall doctor. His
hare-brained audacity almost took her breath away.

"Oh," said she. "Out of a fund you have."

And she thought wildly of accepting his offer at once, compelling him to
name a definite sum, just for the fun of seeing how he would wriggle out
of it afterwards.

"I'm tremendously interested in the Works, you know," the man rushed on,
quite as if he found encouragement in her reply, "because I have so many
friends who work there. It's to gratify my peace of mind, just to know
that they have--everything they need. As I say, I happen to--to have a
sort of fund--a little public fund, you might say--for--for purposes of
the kind. And the idea o