res would have taught you sense, but you
must listen to Batley again this afternoon," she scolded. "You were with
him for half an hour. I've no patience with you, Jim."

"He's not so easy to shake off, particularly as I'm in his debt,"
returned the lad. "Besides, he's an interesting fellow, the kind you
learn a good deal from. It's an education to mix with such men."

"The trouble is that it's expensive. Come away with me before he ruins
you. There's Mrs. Barnard's invitation to their place in Scotland; it
would be a good excuse."

Her brother's rather lofty manner changed.

"You're a dear, Bella. You know you don't want to go."

Having a strong reason for wishing to stay, she colored at this. Among
his other unprepossessing characteristics, Jim had a trick of saying
things he should suppress.

"Never mind me," she answered. "Will you come?"

He had an incomplete recognition of the magnitude of the sacrifice she
was ready to make, though it was not this that decided him not to fall in
with it.

"No," he said with raw self-confidence. "I'm not one to run away; but
I'll promise to keep my eye on the fellow after this and be cautious. All
his schemes aren't in the same class as those mining shares, you know."

Bella lost her temper and told him some plain truths about himself, and
this did not improve matters, for in the end she retired, defeated,
leaving Jim rather sore but on the whole satisfied with the firmness he
had displayed. The girl felt dejected and almost desperate. She could not
continually apply to Lisle for assistance, and she shrank from the only
other course that seemed open to her; but her affection for the misguided
lad impelled her to make another attempt to rescue him, and a few days
later she found her opportunity. It was a bold measure she had decided
on, one that might cost her a good deal, but she was a young woman of
courage and determination.

Mrs. Marple and her daughter drove over with her to call on Mrs.
Gladwyne. They found several other people present, and as usual there was
no ceremony; the day was fine, and the hostess sat outside, while the
guests strolled about the terrace and gardens very much as they liked.
Bella, hearing that Clarence was engaged in the library and would not be
down for a little while, slipped away in search of him. Her heart beat
painfully fast as she went up the wide staircase, but she was outwardly
very collected--a slender, attractive figure--when she en