"I found her crying last night like a child, but this morning I see she is going to brazen it out. But she wants to quarrel with me at once, so I don't get much confidence." "But you don't mind that?" "Not in the least, only--" Molly sighed, but intimate as their tone was, she did not now feel any inclination to reveal her greater troubles. "I don't want to end up badly with my first venture, and I have nowhere else to go. For to-day I think she will talk of going to see the dentist until she finds out how she is treated here." "Oh! that will be all right for to-day," said Edmund. "There are no possible trains on Bank holiday, and no motor. Let her get off early to-morrow." Molly had evidently sought his opinion as decisive, and she turned as if to go and repeat it to Mrs. Delaport Green. "But what will you do yourself?" he asked very gently. "I shall go away with her, and then--I wonder--" She hesitated, and looked full into his face. "Would you be shocked if I took a flat by myself? I don't want to hunt for another Mrs. Delaport Green just now." Sir Edmund paused. It struck him for a moment as very tiresome that he should be falling into the position of counsellor and guide to this girl, while he had anything but her prosperity at heart. He looked at her, and there was in her attitude a pathetic confidence in his judgment. "I don't want," she went on, holding her head very straight and looking away to the wooded hills, "I don't want to do anything unconventional." A deep blush overspread the dark face--a blush of shame and hesitation, for the words, "your mother's daughter ought to be more careful than other girls," so often in poor Molly's mind, were repeated there now. "If there were an old governess, or some one of that sort," suggested Sir Edmund, with hesitation. "Oh yes, yes!" cried Molly eagerly; "there is one, if I could only get her. Oh, thank you, yes! I wonder I did not think of that before." And she gave a happy, youthful laugh at this solution. "Is it some one you really care for?" asked Edmund, with growing interest. "I don't know about really caring"--Molly looked puzzled--"but she would do. There is one thing more I wanted to ask you. About the silly boy last night: whom does he owe the money to? I know nothing about bridge." "He owes it to Billy." Molly looked sorry. "I thought, if it were to Mrs. Delaport Green----" "You might have paid the money?" Edmund smiled kindly at her. "No, no, Miss Dexter, that will be all right." She turned from him, laughing, and went indoors to Mrs. Delaport Green's room. She found that lady writing letters, and the floor was scattered with them, six deep round the table. She put her hand to her face as Molly came in. "There are no possible trains," said Molly, "so I'm afraid you must bear it. Sir Edmund advises us to go by an early train to-morrow: he thinks to-day you would be better here, as there won't be a dentist left in London."