horrible little girl, and Cousin
Emelene and her unspeakable cat. It shall be our world; and no troubles
or cares or worries shall ever get in there!"

She acquiesced in this prophecy, but even as she did so, cuddling her
face against his own, a low-down, unworthy spook, whose existence in
her he must never suspect, said audibly in her inner ear, "Much he knows
about it!" Betty did not forget to remind George of the letter he was
to write to Miss Eliot about taking over the agency of Mrs.
Brewster-Smith's cottages. In the composition of this letter George
washed his hands of responsibility with, you might say, antiseptic care.

He had taken pleasure in recommending Miss Eliot, he explained, and Mrs.
Brewster-Smith was acting on his recommendation. Any questions arising
out of the management of the property should be taken up directly with
her client. Miss Eliot would have no difficulty in understanding that
the enormous pressure of work which now beset him precluded him from
having anything more to do with the matter.

The letter was typed and inclosed in a big linen envelope, with the mess
of papers Alys had dumped upon his desk a few days previously, and it
was despatched forthwith by the office boy.

"There," said George on a note of grim satisfaction, "that's done!"

The grimness lasted, but the satisfaction did not. Or only until
the return of the office boy, half an hour later, with the identical
envelope and a three-line typewritten note from Miss Eliot. She was
sorry to say, she wrote, that she did not consider it advisable to
undertake the agency for the property in question. Thanking him,
nevertheless, for his courtesy, she was his very truly, E. Eliot.

George summoned Betty by means of the buzzer, and asked her, with icy
indignation, what she thought of that. But, as he was visibly bursting
with impatience to say what _he_ thought of it, she gave him the
opportunity.

"I thought you advanced women," he said, "were supposed to stand by each
other--stand by all women--try to make things better for them. One for
all--all for one. That sort of thing. But it really works the other way.
It's just because a woman owns those cottages that Miss Eliot won't have
anything to do with them. She knows that women are unreasonable and hard
to get on with in business matters, so she passes the buck! Back to a
man, if you please, who hasn't any more real responsibility for it than
she has."

There was, of course, an