"Please let me," she said to Anthony the morning after her flight with Justin. "I suppose I'm in disgrace, anyhow, and this shall be my penance. Only it won't be very severe punishment, for I shall love to take care of her." "What good is penance if you aren't penitent? I'm perfectly sure that if that young rascal should ask you to go again you'd go." "It was glorious." "But very dangerous." She shrugged. "You do dangerous things every day. Doesn't he, Sophie?" "Of course." "That's different. I do such things to help others." "And I do them to please myself." "And to please Justin?" There was an impatient note in his voice. "I have told him that he must not ask you again, Bettina." "What did he say?" "He didn't say a word." Anthony smiled at the memory. "He just looked at me as if he would like to punch my head, and turned on his heel and left me." "Are you angry with him?" anxiously. "He's angry with me." "Oh, dear!" Betty sighed. "Sophie gave me a terrible lecture when I came home last night; didn't you, Sophie? And now you and Justin have fallen out, and I'm the cause of all the trouble. I'll go and look after Letty Matthews, and you can learn to love me when I'm gone." In spite of the lightness of her tone, there was a quiver in her voice which brought both of them to her feet. "My dear child----!" "Betty dear----" Bettina smiled at them with misty eyes. "Please let me go, and when I come back everything will be straightened out--and we'll all live--happy--ever after----" Nothing that they could say would change her decision, and they were vaguely troubled by it, feeling that she had erected between herself and them some barrier of reserve which they could not break down. Sophie voiced this in a worried way when Bettina had gone up to pack the little bag which Anthony was to convey with her precious self to Miss Matthews. "Perhaps I shouldn't have said so much, but when she came she seemed so unconscious of the dreadfulness and danger that I'm afraid I scolded a bit." "She's such a child! Do you think she will ever grow up?" "Of course. Diana feels that she has many womanly qualities----" Anthony, standing by the window, fixed his eyes steadily on the blue distance as he asked: "What do you hear--from Diana?" "I've a letter." Sophie rummaged among the papers on her desk. "And there's a bit at the end that will please you--you know Diana and her enthusiasms----" "Yes, I know----" His head was still turned away as she opened the thick folded sheets. "Shall I read it to you?" "Please." "She says she likes the hotel, and the people, although she doesn't see much of them. But this is the part you'll appreciate: