"Oh, Pam, Pam, what am I to say to you? This is worse than I imagined! Your blue coat--and it was quite good still! I can't possibly accept a present obtained in such a way!" She cast an appealing glance at her husband, who had been sitting covering his mouth with his hand, and trying in vain to subdue the twinkle in his eyes as he listened to Pam's extraordinary confession. Now he looked at the child's frightened, shrinking face, and said kindly-- "I think Pam and I will have a quiet talk together while you adjourn to the drawing-room. She did not mean to do wrong, and I am sure she will never offend again in the same way when she understands things in their right light." So Mrs Trevor and the elder children went to the drawing-room, and, ten minutes later, a subdued little Pam crept up to her mother's side, holding out a bright crown-piece on her palm. "Father says General Digby would like me best to pay my debts. Will you please give some to the others to pay for the things I took?" "Thank you, Pam. I shall be very pleased to do so," said Mrs Trevor quietly. Her heart ached at being obliged to take the child's fortune from her, but she knew it was the right thing to do, and would not allow herself to hesitate. "And now, darling, I shall be delighted to have the palm. It is indeed the very thing I wanted." Pam tried to smile, but her lips quivered. A whole crown-piece, and a new one into the bargain! A Vanderbilt deprived of his millions could not have felt his poverty more bitterly than she did at that moment! CHAPTER FIFTEEN. THE CONCERT. Next afternoon Betty left Jill engaged in filling up the blanks in her Christmas letters, and Pam lovingly dressing up Pamela junior in her various costumes, and, accompanied by her father and Miles, called for Cynthia and set out to walk across the Park to the Albert Hall, where Miss Beveridge and a friend had arranged to meet them in the box. Cynthia looked delightfully graceful and pretty in a blue costume and hat, which had already caused Betty many pangs of envy, and perhaps it was a remembrance of his own youth which made Dr Trevor pass his hand through Betty's arm and lead her ahead, so that his son should have the pleasure of a talk with this very charming little lady. Miles was the best of good fellows, all solid goodness and worth, but he was still in the boorish stage, and it would do him good to be drawn out of himself, and forced to play the gallant.