"But it's my money; I have a right to it. And it would make all the difference in the world to Lute. If he is going to take a girl--like me, he ought to have the money, anyhow." "And kill your father?" Rebecca said. "Alice! Don't you see, he must go on believing that she is"--her voice grew suddenly tender--"that she is 'a creature of light?'" "I want Lute to have the money," Alice said. "Alice!" the other exclaimed, with dismay, "don't you think of your father at all? And--for your mother's sake." Alice was silent; then, in a hard voice, "I don't like her." "Oh!" Rebecca cried, and shivered. There was a pause; then she said, faintly, "For your own sake?" Alice looked up sullenly. "Nobody need know; we would only say it had been left to--her. Nobody would know." Suddenly, as she spoke, despite the plain face and the red hair, Alice looked like her mother. Rebecca stepped back with a sort of shock. Alice, crying a little, got up and began to pull down her hair and braid it, with unsteady fingers. Her step-mother watched her silently; then she turned to go away; then came back swiftly, the tears running down her face. "Oh, Alice, it is my fault! I've had you twenty-two years, and yet you are like-- See, Alice, child; give her a chance to be kind to him, in you. Oh, I--I don't know how to say it; I mean, let her have a chance! Oh--don't you see what I mean? She said she was sorry!" All the harshness had melted out of Rebecca's face; she was nothing but gentleness, the tears falling down her cheeks, her voice broken with love. "Alice, be good, dear. Be good. Be good. And I--I _will_ be pleasanter, Alice; I'll try, indeed; I'll try--" VI "Well," said Mr. Amos Hughes, a week later, in the cool dusk of Dr. Lavendar's study, just before tea, "this is a most extraordinary situation, sir!" "Will ye have a pipe?" said Dr. Lavendar, hospitably. John Carter, his feet well apart, his back to the fireless grate, his hands thrust down into his pockets, said, looking over at his partner: "Amos, Dr. Lavendar once remarked to me that there was no telling what human critters would do." Dr. Lavendar chuckled. "Very true," Amos Hughes admitted, putting one fat knee over the other; "but I must say that I never before knew a human critter throw away £5000." "I'm sorry you haven't had better acquaintances," said Dr. Lavendar. "I have. I'm not in the least surprised at this child's behavior. Mr. Carter, are you looking for anything? You'll find a decanter on the sideboard in the next room, sir. This is a pretty good world, Mr. Amos Hughes; I've lived in it longer than you have, so you'll take my word for it. It's a pretty good old world, and Miss Alice Gray has simply decided to do the natural and proper thing. Why, what else could she do?" "I could mention at least one other thing," said Mr. Carter. "Extraordinary situation! but I suppose the residuary legatees won't make any objection," murmured Amos Hughes.