"Oh, conceal your want of annoyance, then," said Ruby, "and in any case don't get the Christian Science smile. It wouldn't suit you, and it is particularly fatiguing for others. Alice Yardly has it. That is why I can't look at her any more." Lady Thurso was still not quite satisfied with her staircase, or, at any rate, she wanted to be sure that she was. "Still more buttercups," she proclaimed. "A hundred--two hands full of them." Then she detached herself again completely, and turned to Ruby. "Oh, you must be just, Ruby," she said. "Alice was always fatiguing, whether she smiled or not, and she is not really more fatiguing now than she used to be. Maud loves her, and so do I, and we both yawn our heads off when she is with us. It is true that she now seems to smile with a purpose, but if we didn't know she was a Christian what's-his-name, we shouldn't notice the change. Her plan is to be helpful now, but she is just as helpless as ever, so it doesn't matter. Of course, nobody can really help anybody else. We all have to help ourselves." "Then, why do you spend your life----" began Ruby. "In bazaars and industries, you mean. I hardly know. I daresay you think it is insincere--that I ought to sell the diamond palisade and the ruby plaster, or induce Thurso to do so. But I am sincere. I want to live a gorgeous life, and I will. At the same time, I am delighted to work while you rest, as you said, if my work will make some poor wretches in Caithness a little less uncomfortable. If I didn't, I should lie awake at night, thinking about them. That would be uncomfortable for me, too, so you are quite at liberty to suppose that it is all selfishness--refined selfishness, if you like, which is the worst sort. Certainly, if I wasn't a very hard-working woman, which I am, I should have bad dreams by day, as well as no sleep at night." Again she paused. "And I've been talking about myself," she said, "which you will allow is unusual. And the carriage is here, and I must go. Ruby, you see the idea of the corner, don't you? It must be sunlight--sunlight of buttercups, bless them! Oh, to be a milkmaid, now that June is here! But otherwise don't let them touch the staircase any more. It is so nearly what I meant it to be that it is safer not to run any risks. It is darling of you to stop and superintend these stupid people. And please, if they bring any gardenia or tuberose, make them take it away, like the calceolarias. Gardenias are so 'powerful.' What a heavenly expression! I am sure it was invented at Clapham. The same people say 'carriage sweep' and 'soiled handkerchiefs.' I hate the middle classes!" * * * * *