In order that this tragic story, for it is a tragedy, should not expand into a novel, I will say at once that she was a complete success. That was because she did exactly as I told her. As a rule, very silly people never will do what they are told. But in that one point Dulcie was no fool. She was lamentably weak with the children. She had no art of teaching. She did not encourage Joan to preserve a burnished mind, but she took to astrology like a duck to water. From the first she was deeply interested in it, and believed in it with flawless credulity. "Dulcie," said Gertrude with approval, "has a very alert mind for one so young. Joan has never taken the faintest interest in astrology, but Dulcie shows an intelligent grasp of the subject. She studies it while the children are preparing their syntax. You, yourself, Anne, have never in all these years mastered even the elements of the science. I don't believe you know what _an aspect_ means." "I don't pretend to a powerful mind." "Your difficulty is the inertia that belongs to a low vitality," said Gertrude, "and I rather think that is what is the matter with Joan. She hardly opens a book. She has not an idea beyond her chickens. She spends hours among her coops." "Dulcie's horoscope," continued Gertrude after a pause, "shows a marked expansion in her immediate future. The wider life which she has entered upon under our roof is no doubt the beginning of it. I feel it my duty to help her in every way I can." "Dear Gertrude," I said. "_Thank you._ My poor motherless child, for whom I can do but little has found a powerful friend in you." Conscience jabbed me as with a knitting needle, but I paid no more attention to it than the Spartan boy to his fox. "There is certainly a love affair in her near future," continued Gertrude affably. "_She_ says that astrologically she can't see any such thing for several years to come, but I know better. I found him under Uranus, transiting her Venus. She is an extremely intelligent pupil, but she is certainly obstinate. She _won't_ see it. But she can see Joan's engagement and marriage quite clearly. We both see that. But I am convinced Dulcie has an opportunity of marrying as well as Joan. Her moon will shortly be going through the fifth house, the house of lovers which speaks for itself. I wondered whether it might possibly be Mr. Wilson. Most respectable--you know--Mr. Benson's pupil. He's always coming over on one pretext or another, to play tennis or see Joan's chickens. I saw him walking back through the park with Dulcie and the children the other day." I pretended to be horrified. "I will speak to her," I mumbled, "most reprehensible." "I beg you will do nothing of the kind," said Gertrude with asperity. "The world moves on, my dear Anne, while you sit dreaming in your cottage; and if you can't raise a finger to help your own niece then don't try to nullify the benevolent activities of those who can."