She was not ill-looking, nay, she was handsome, as were all the Bolderos; and, curiously, she was better turned-out than the younger ones, for she had the knack of suiting herself in her clothes, which they had not,--but with it all, with her good appearance and respectable air, she belonged to the ranks of the uninteresting, and the weight she carried with her father was voted unaccountable. No one, however, disputed it; and when the two withdrew together no one followed. "Well, what does Leo say?" demanded Maud, who with Sybil had been lying in wait for their half-sister while the conversation above narrated was going on in the library. "What a time you have been! You might have known Syb and I were on thorns to hear what was in that great fat letter? Where is she going to live? Or is she going to travel? And is she going to invite one of us to go with her? If she does----" "It ought to be me," struck in Sybil eagerly. "I am nearest her age, and Leo and I were always pals. I shouldn't at all mind going with her." "Which of us would? It would be splendid. Can't you speak?" to Sue. "You are such a slow coach,--and surely you might have broken loose before, when you knew we were waiting." "You have been nearly an hour;" Sybil glanced at the clock. "We thought you might have called us in," added Maud. "Anyhow, do for heaven's sake let us have it out now," continued Sybil impetuously. She had been giving little tweaks at the letter in her sister's hand, and a faint apprehension crept into her accents as she found it firmly withheld; "and don't look so owl-like. There is nothing to be owl-like about, I suppose?" Hitherto neither had noted Sue's expression; now for the first time they simultaneously paused long enough to enable her to open her lips. "I am afraid you will be disappointed," she said slowly. "I am so sorry to tell you, but--but things are not as you suppose. Poor Godfrey----" she paused. "Poor Godfrey, well, poor Godfrey?" Both exclaimed at once, and each alike made a movement of impatience. "He had been very unfortunate of late. He had--speculated. He----" "We don't care twopence about _him_, get on." "He has been unable to leave Leonore----" "Never mind what he has been _un_able to do--what has he been able?" "He was ruined," said Sue at last, in a dull, matter-of-fact tone. "It appears he did not himself know it, for which Leonore is very thankful--but though he died in the belief that he was going to be richer than ever, when his affairs came to be looked into----" "Oh, how long you are in telling it. You do love to harangue;" with a sudden petulance Sybil shook her sister's shoulder and seized the letter, whose perusal was the work of a minute. "So that's how the cat jumps!" quoth she, suddenly as cool as she had been warm before. "Poor brat! Well, it will be nice to have her here." "Here?" ejaculated Maud. "Is she coming here? To live?"