"Do you think so?" said Lesley. "I should have thought the opposite--that what is old and well-tried and established is the best to found a friendship upon." She spoke half sadly, with a memory of her parents and her own relations with her father in her mind. Ethel gave her a shrewd glance, but made no direct reply. She was a young woman of marvellously quick intuitions, and she saw at once that Lesley's training had not fitted her to take up her position in the Brooke household very easily. When she went home she turned this matter over in her mind a good many times; and was so absorbed in her reflections that her brother had to ask her twice what she was thinking about before she answered him. "I was thinking about Lesley Brooke," she answered promptly. "A lively subject. I never saw a girl with a more melancholy expression." "Well, of course, as yet she hates everything," said Ethel, comprehensively. "Hates everything! That's a large order," said the young doctor. They were at dinner--they dined at six every day on account of Ethel's professional engagements; and it was not often that Maurice was at home. When he was at home Ethel knew that he liked to talk to her, so she abandoned her brown studies. "Well, she hates the fog and the darkness, and the ugly buildings and the solid furniture of Mr. Brooke's house, which dates back to the Georgian era at the very least. I'm sure she hates Sarah. And I shouldn't like to say that she hates Doctor Sophy"--Ethel always called Miss Brooke Doctor Sophy--"but she doesn't like her very much. She is awfully shocked because Doctor Sophy smokes cigarettes." "Quite right of Miss Lesley Brooke to be shocked," said Maurice, laughing. "However, she need not despair, there is always old Caspar to fall back upon." Ethel pursed up her lips, looked at her brother very hard, and shook her curly head significantly. "Do you mean to say," cried the doctor, "that she doesn't appreciate her father?" "I don't think she understands him. And how can she appreciate him if she doesn't understand?" Maurice laid down his knife and fork, and simply glared at his sister. He was an excitable young man, and had a way of expressing himself sometimes in reprehensibly strong language. On this occasion, he said-- "Do you mean to tell me that that girl is such a born idiot and fool that she can't see what a grand man her father is?" Ethel nodded. But her eyes brimmed over with mirth. "Then she deserves to be shut up for life in the convent she came from!" said the doctor. "I wouldn't have believed it! Is she blind? Doesn't she _see_ what an intellect that man has? Can't she understand that his abilities are equal to those of any man in Europe?" "We all know your admiration for Mr. Brooke, dear," said Ethel, saucily. "You had better go and expound your views to Lesley. Perhaps she and her father would get on better then."