ested. "Is she ill? What is it?"

Kitty was reading the letter half aloud and half to herself, in that
particularly aggravating fashion which gives a few leading words and
skips the important points.

"Certainly--um--um--to go--um--um--um--complete rest--um--never be
well----"

"I wish you'd tell me what's the matter?" urged Lesbia, dancing with
impatience.

Kitty finished the first sheet and handed it on to her. The Canadian
friend, Mrs. Johnson, had paid a visit to the Hiltons and sent grave
accounts of Minnie's health.

"Mrs. Hilton certainly ought to go away to a nursing home for several
months' complete rest," so the letter ran, "she'll never be well until
she does. She says, however, it's out of the question, she can't leave
her husband and the children to the tender mercies of a mulatto 'help'
and a Chinese 'boy', both of whom may elect to leave at any moment
without notice, if the whim seizes them. You know what servants are out
here. It seems a pity she has no relations who could come and take
charge for a while, and give her the chance of getting well. She really
looks hardly fit to be going about. She tells me her husband advertised
for a housekeeper, but such queer creatures turned up to offer
themselves for the post it was impossible to engage one. These are some
of the trials of our life out here."

Lesbia handed the letter back to Mrs. Patterson without a word. She
could not trust herself to speak. She ran upstairs to her bedroom so
that she might be alone. A wild struggle was going on in her heart.
Minnie ill, and no one to help her! How much she owed to Paul and
Minnie! Debts so great as that ought surely to be repaid. There were
better things in the world even than cultivating your own talents, kind,
unselfish things that counted far more in the long run. Lesbia was quick
at making decisions. As eighteen months ago she had burnt her boats and
run away from the _Roumania_ on the spur of a moment, so now she equally
impulsively changed her plans. She ran downstairs all excitement to
announce her intentions.

"If Minnie's ill and needs me, I must go to her! Paris can wait. Six
months in Canada won't spoil my career. I'll start the painting when I
come back. Minnie will trust _me_ to look after Paul and the children,
when she wouldn't leave them with anybody else. I shall just _make_ her
pack off to a nursing home."

"I believe you're right," said Mrs. Patterson slowly. "In the
circumstances you