"I suppose it will be done soon?" "It may, or it may not; but that won't affect your interest, you know." "I was thinking of the security." "Well, the security is not as perfect as it should be. I tell you that honestly; and if we were dealing with strangers we should expect to be called on to refund. And we should refund instantly, but at a great sacrifice, a ruinous sacrifice. Now, I want you to put so much trust in us,--in me, if I may be allowed to ask you to do so,--as to believe that your money is substantially safe. I cannot explain it all now; but the benefit which you have done us is immense." "I suppose it will all come right, Mr Rubb." "It will all come right, Miss Mackenzie." Then there was extracted from her something which he was able to take as a promise that she would not stir in the matter for a while, but would take her interest without asking for any security as to her principal. The conversation was interrupted by Miss Colza, who came and stood opposite to them. "Well, I'm sure," she said; "you two are very confidential." "And why shouldn't we be confidential, Miss Colza?" asked Mr Rubb. "Oh, dear! no reason in life, if you both like it." Miss Mackenzie was not sure that she did like it. But again she was not sure that she did not, when Mr Rubb pressed her hand at parting, and told her that her great kindness had been of the most material service to the firm. "He felt it," he said, "if nobody else did." That also might be a sacrificial duty and therefore gratifying. The next morning she and Susanna left Gower Street at eight, spent an interesting period of nearly an hour at the railway station, and reached Littlebath in safety at one. CHAPTER IX Miss Mackenzie's Philosophy Miss Mackenzie remained quiet in her room for two days after her return before she went out to see anybody. These last Christmas weeks had certainly been the most eventful period of her life, and there was very much of which it was necessary that she should think. She had, she thought, made up her mind to refuse her cousin's offer; but the deed was not yet done. She had to think of the mode in which she must do it; and she could not but remember, also, that she might still change her mind in that matter if she pleased. The anger produced in her by Lady Ball's claim, as it were, to her fortune, had almost evaporated; but the memory of her cousin's story of his troubles was still fresh. "I have a hard time of it sometimes, I can tell you." Those words and others of the same kind were the arguments which had moved her, and made her try to think that she could love him. Then she remembered his bald head and the weary, careworn look about his eyes, and his little intermittent talk, addressed chiefly to his mother, about the money-market,--little speeches made as he would sit with the newspaper in his hand: "The Confederate loan isn't so bad, after all. I wish I'd taken a few."