Mrs. Mackenzie burst into tears. She might be habitually a good deal self-occupied, and not a little addicted to nursing her own troubles, but she had a warm heart, and a very real affection for his long-tried friend. "She can't do it, Colin. At her age, and all her life accustomed to have everything she could want. And he is getting elderly, and not strong. It is perfectly dreadful! Of course, they have had some worries now and then, everybody has, but nothing of this sort. Why, she has always been able to get every single thing she wanted. And just think of eighty-five pounds a year!" "Yes, it's the suddenness of it—and the change from what she is used to. That makes it so much worse." "Worse! It makes it awful for them. How you can talk of it so quietly! And what in the world are they to do now? This is what I cannot imagine. Brought up as she has been. Eighty-five pounds a year. She must be half dazed with it. Of course she does not see yet what it all really means—she can't. And, oh dear, to think of what I have been saying to her. How I could!" Colin made a sound of enquiry. "Oh, I don't know—I mean—Oh, of course I didn't know anything about this; and she never told me. But it must have sounded so horribly unfeeling. I told her about the doctor wanting you to get away, and she said I ought to trust more. And I thought it was so easy for her to talk when she had got everything she wanted, and I said something of the sort. She won't be vexed, I know, because it is not her way, but I am vexed with myself." "Perhaps it is a little lesson just to be more careful next time, my dear." Mrs. Mackenzie rather resented having "little lessons" pointed out to her, however clearly she might perceive them for herself. And she hastened to explain that "another time" was very unlikely to recur. In fact, one might think that this was the only time in her life that she had ever been betrayed into hasty speech. But in the midst of her defence, she relapsed into tears. "Mrs. Landor wanted you to go and see her, Colin. Don't you think I might go too, and tell her how sorry I am?" "No, my dear. If Mrs. Landor asked for me only, she did not mean you too. It is always best, when people are in trouble, to do exactly what they ask, and not more. It may be that she wishes to put some business questions," observed Colin, in his most oracular tone. He had his way, and started alone, bearing a long message of unlimited apology and sympathy, which went utterly out of his head by the time he quitted the garden gate.