"I should not think so, but you are a better judge of character than I am." Conscience pricked as I said the words, but I had become inured to its prickings. "I have, of course, studied human nature," she said slowly, still looking at the pretty group on the lawn. I have not yet met a fellow creature who does not think he has studied human nature. Yet how few turn the pages of that open book. And out of that few the greatest number scan it upside down. "I could make a truer estimate," she continued, "if I drew out her horoscope. I go by that more than by my own fallible judgment. I may err, but I have never known astrology to fail." * * * * * Dulcie was duly engaged as governess on approval for three months, on the strength of her horoscope. Before she went to the Manor House I made a few remarks to her to which she listened decorously, her eyes reverently fixed on my face. "You will leave with me that remarkably pretty lilac muslin you appeared in yesterday--and the sun-bonnet. You will make yourself look as like a district visitor as possible, thick where you ought to be thin, and thin where you ought to be thick. Don't cry, Dulcie. I am endeavouring to help you. Be thankful you have an aunt like me. Who educated you?" "You did." Sob. Sob. "Well, now I am finishing your education. You want to earn your living, I suppose. You know that I only have a small annuity, that I have not a farthing to leave you." "Yes, yes, Aunt Anne." "Well, then, don't look prettier than that square Joan, and don't let the wave in your hair show." The Alderney calf eyes brimmed anew with tears. Dulcie drooped her pin of a head. Like that defunct noodle, her mother, she lived solely for clothes and poetry and the admiration of the uncorseted sex. She had come into the world a little late. She conformed to the best Victorian ideals, but there are men still lurking in secluded rural districts if one could but find them, to whom her cheap appeal might be irresistible. I had hopes she might secure a husband if she took a country engagement. I proceeded with my discourse. It spread over Jimmy as well. I did not bid her pure eyes look into depths of depravity but I did make her understand that Mrs. Cross was becoming rather stout and middle-aged, and that if Mr. Cross blew soap bubbles in the schoolroom too frequently, she, Dulcie, might find that her French accent was not good enough for her young charges. Dulcie has not the faintest gleam of humour, but she is docility itself. She appeared next day staid, flat-figured, almost unpretty, her wonderful hair smoothed closely over her small ears. I blessed her, and said as a parting word: "Take an interest in astrology." And then the gardener wheeled her luggage on the barrow to the Manor, and Dulcie crept timidly behind it to her first situation.