“‘You go--take the old lady first.’ “Until then I’d always thought myself merely middle-aged; but I looked in the glass as the man dressed my hair, and I said to myself, ‘He is right. You _are_ an old lady.’ Once people used to stand up and give me their seats, because I was lovely; now, when they do this, it is merely because I am venerable,” and she sighed profoundly. “And you, Letty, have the gift of perpetual youth!” “No, indeed; but I must say when I’m with you I feel almost a girl, and when with Cara, I’m an elderly woman.” “You are close on thirty-five and yet you look seven-and-twenty--even in broad daylight. Your calm, healthful, uneventful life, has preserved your beauty. Such an existence would have driven _me_ mad. One day my body would have been fished out of the lake.” “No, they are never found; the lake is pitiless.” “Oh, well, before we begin to discuss your plans and Cara--by the way, a handsome young woman!--let me tell you all my news. The Dentons are pretty much as usual, and send you kind messages. You know that Frances is going to be married? I motored over to Sharsley to lunch, and inspect the presents,--including yours, and afterwards we walked up to the Court. My dear, it’s like a dead place! Positively, I expected to see a hearse at the door. The shutters closed, the avenue grass-grown, not a soul to be met or seen. I believe some of the best pictures and furniture have been carted away, and sold. Old Scrope heirlooms,--and the Scropes are frantic. Hugo’s racing comes expensive. He and Tom Slater have a string of useless animals, who, by all accounts, eat up thousands and thousands.” “And where does he live?” “He has the same rooms in Newmarket, and the house in town. Connie Rashleigh is often there, though she still holds on to her own flat, as, of course, she never knows when, and by whom, she may be deposed! Cara inherits your colouring and teeth, but she has her aunt’s figure, and her aunt’s laugh--yes, and her father’s jaw.” As Letty was about to protest: “Yes, my dear, and her aunt’s air of buoyant confidence. There is nothing undecided about Cara, and I can grasp the fact, that she has her mother under her thumb! Alas, poor Letty, you have merely changed your yoke!” “Oh, dear Cousin Maude, you surely cannot judge _already_!” Mrs. Hesketh gave a quick nod; she had been in the company of mother and daughter for several hours, and had made copious notes. “Do you think Cara is going to be a comfort to you? and a compensation for all you have relinquished for her sake?” “Yes, of course I do,” replied Letty; but her colour had risen, and her eyes no longer rested on her companion, but on the moonlit lake, and a cargo-barge that went drowsily by. “Ah, that is good news!” said Mrs. Hesketh, but her sardonic tone belied her speech. “And so you are about to shift your sky at last--but why?” In faltering and apologetic terms, Letty related her interview with Frau Hurter, and the woman’s ultimatum.