“That’s different! I would only bring _him_ shame and trouble; but Cara is mine. I will rescue her, form her character as well as ever I can,--and make her happy.” “I wonder if she will make _you_ happy?” “Of course she will. And now, what is your plan?” “You can leave your pearls with me in pawn, and I will pay you thirty pounds a year on them, till you return home, and claim them.” For a long time Letty combated this suggestion: in fact, all through the valse ‘Mes Rêves,’ played so seductively by the band. But Mrs. Hesketh, a practical woman, was determined that her foolish friend should not fare forth into the cold world, quite penniless, with the exception of her hoarded two hundred pounds. “And another thing, I must say, Letty, and that is about the nurse. Have you thought of the frightful trouble she will get into; and her state of mind when she returns and finds that you have stolen her charge?” “Yes: I am leaving a present, and a letter to clear her entirely. I fancy she will be surprised when she discovers that, of all people, I am Cara’s _mother_!” “She won’t make friends again in a hurry, with pretty strange ladies! You are a child in the ways of the world; you have never in all your life had to depend upon yourself, you don’t know the value of money,--or how far it goes. As to earning it, I’m afraid you will not have much chance of that in Switzerland, among an untiring, and industrious people. Seventy pounds a year, will at least keep you from starvation: for Switzerland is a cheap country to live in--once you leave the radius of the big hotels--so you will give me your address, and four times a year I will send you seventeen pounds. And perhaps, if my health permits, I will go out, and settle myself down somewhere near you, for a little while.” “That will be good of you. Oh, if you only _would_!” “If it were suspected, that I was here with you, abetting and aiding your criminal act, and arranging for your departure, I should get into a nice scrape, but you know, my dear, I have always liked you, and I’m sorry you have made such an awful hash of your life.” “So am I,” agreed Letty, with profound sincerity. “My own marriage was not a success; my husband and I were never sympathetic, we were always like two goats chained to a log; but we kept it to ourselves, and I am not sure, after all, that I am a very easy woman to live with. I am restless and discontented, I expect too much of life.” “I should think you were excessively easy to live with, Cousin Maude; you and I got on together splendidly when we were abroad.”