By a combination of proofs needless to describe here, Martine discovered that she and the Airtons were third cousins, since their great-great-grandfather and hers, Thomas Blair, was the Tory exile who had gone to Nova Scotia after the Revolution. In the same way Edith Blair, Brenda's great friend, was a cousin of Eunice and Balfour, and Martine's first impulse on returning home had been to urge her father and Mr. Blair to provide for Balfour, so that he no longer need earn his way through college. Fortunately enough, before she had spoken to her father, she talked the matter over with Mrs. Redmond. "My dear Martine, I sincerely hope that you will change your mind about this. Or, if you do not, hope that your father and Mr. Blair will be hard-hearted enough to refuse your request." "How hard-hearted _you_ are, Mrs. Redmond!" "No, indeed, not hard-hearted--only hard-headed." "What do you mean?" "I am looking strictly to the practical side. In the first place, you would risk the loss of Balfour's friendship, if you should put him in the position of a pauper--for this is the light in which he might regard your interference." "Oh, no, not a pauper!" "Well, Balfour is very proud--and in the second place, he could not afford to risk his independence, as he must, if he should accept money from strangers." "But they wouldn't be strangers; in the South third cousins are very near." "Well, this isn't the South, and the relationship is on your mother's side, and Mrs. Blair's. Balfour would probably regard the men as strangers. Think over what I have said, Martine, and remember Balfour's disposition." "It is because he is so bright and industrious that I think it a shame that he should not have as good a chance as Lucian or Robert." "Balfour has the best possible chance. In the end his friends will be proud of him, and he will be thankful that no one took away his independence." Martine was sufficiently impressed by what Mrs. Redmond had said to give up for the time the plan she had formed of getting help for Balfour. When she saw that her father was not quite ready to do what she had planned for Yvonne, she was glad that she had not thrown on him the extra burden of considering the case of Balfour. She decided, however, to interest Lucian in Eunice's brother. In spite of Lucian's fondness for teasing Martine, he was really devoted to her. He was apt in the end to be influenced by her, although in the beginning often pretending to resist her influence.