'It has been saving up for I don't know how long. The girl is only twenty-one, and she has about thirty thousand pounds, besides all kinds of precious things worth I don't know how much.' 'Jagenal told me she was comfortably off--"comfortably," he said--but--thirty thousand pounds!' 'The mere thought of so much makes your eyes glow quite poetically, Alec. Write a poem on thirty thousand pounds. Well, that is what she has, and all her own, without any drawbacks: no nasty poor relations--no profligate brothers--to nibble and gnaw. She has not either brother or sister--an enviable lot when one has money. When one has no money a brother--a successful brother--might be useful.' 'And how do you get on with her?' 'I think we do pretty well together. But my post is precarious.' 'Why?' 'Because the young woman is pretty, rich, and masterful. It is a curious thing about women that the most masterful soonest find their master.' 'You mean that she will marry.' 'If she gets engaged, being rich, she will certainly marry at once. Until she marries I believe we can get on together, because she is totally independent of me. This afternoon, for example, she has gone out to look at pictures somewhere, with a girl she has picked up somehow--a girl who writes.' 'But, my dear Zoe, you must look after her. Don't let her pick up girls and make friendships. You are here to look after her. I hoped that you would gain her complete confidence--become indispensable to her.' 'Oh! that is why you sent me here? Pray, my dear Alec, what can Armorel be to you?' 'Nothing, dear child,' he replied, patting her soft hand, 'that will bring any discord between you and me. But--make yourself indispensable and necessary to her.' 'You will tell me, I dare say, presently, what you mean. But you don't know this young islander. Necessary to me she is, as you know. Necessary to her I shall never become. We have nothing in common. I can do nothing for her at all, except go out to theatres and concerts and things in the evening. Even then our tastes clash. I like to laugh; she likes to sit solemnly with big eyes staring--so--as if she was receiving inspiration. I like comic operas, she likes serious plays; I like dance music, she likes classical music; I like the fool's paradise, she likes--the other kind, where they all behave so well and are under no illusions. In fact, Armorel takes herself quite seriously all round. Of course, a girl with such a fortune can take herself anyhow she pleases.' 'She knows how to dress, apparently. Most advanced girls disdain dress.'