Rash has taken this girl."

"How, may I ask, did he take her?"

Having foreseen that one day she should be in this position Barbara
had made up her mind as to how much she should say. "He found her."

"Oh, they all do that. They generally find them in the Park."

"Exactly; it's just what he did."

"I guessed--it was only guessing mind you--that he also tried to find
Augusta Chancellor."

"Oh, possibly. He'd go as far as that, if he saw her doing anything he
thought not respectable."

"Barbara, please! You're talking about a friend of mine, one of my
colleagues. Let's return to--I hope you won't find the French phrase
invidious--to our mutton."

"Oh, very well! Rash found the girl homeless--penniless--with no
friends. Her stepfather had turned her out. Another man would have
left her there, or turned her over to the police. Rash took her to his
own house, and since then we've both been helping her to--to get on
her feet."

"Helping her to get on her feet in a way that's driven from the house
the good old women who've been there for nearly thirty years."

"Oh, you know that too, do you?"

"Why, certainly. Jane, that was the parlor maid, is very intimate with
Augusta Chancellor's cook; and she says--Jane does--that he's actually
married the creature."

Barbara shrugged her shoulders. "I can't help what the servants say,
Aunt Marion. I'm trying to be a friend to the girl, and help her to
pull herself together. Of course I recognize the fact that Rash has
been foolish--quixotic--or whatever you like to call it; but he hasn't
kept anything from me."

"And you're still engaged to him?"

"Of course I'm still engaged to him." She held out her left hand.
"Look at his ring."

"Then why don't you get married?"

"Are you in such a hurry to get rid of me?"

The question being a pleasantry Miss Walbrook took it with a gentle
smile. When she resumed it was with a slight flourish of the document
in her hand and another turn to the conversation.

"I went to the bank this morning. I've brought home my will. I'm
thinking of making some changes in it."

Barbara looked non-committal, as if the subject had nothing to do with
herself.

"The question I have to decide," Miss Walbrook pursued, "is whether to
leave everything to you, in the hope that you'll carry on my
work----"

"I shouldn't know how."

"Or whether to establish a trust----"

"I should do that decidedly."

"And let it fall into the hands of a pack