Elizabeth was silent for a few minutes, soothing her sister's excitement with maternal caresses, and at the same time thinking with all her might. "We must try not to get confused," she said presently. "Life is life, you know, Patty, wherever you are--all the other things are incidental. And we need not try to struggle with everything at once. I think we have done our best, when we have had anything to do--any serious step to take--since we came to Melbourne; and in Europe we could have done no more. It seemed right to please Mrs. Duff-Scott, and to accept such a treasure as her friendship when it came to us in what seemed such a providential way--did it not? It seemed so to me. It would have been ungenerous to have held out against her--and we were always a little given to be too proud of standing alone. It makes her happy to have us. I don't know what work we could have done that would have been more profitable than that. Patty"--after another thoughtful pause--"I don't think it is that _things_ are going wrong, dear. It is only that we have to manage them, and to steer our way, and to take care of ourselves, and that is so trying and perplexing. God knows _I_ find it difficult! So, I suppose, does everyone." "You, Elizabeth? _You_ always seem to know what is right. And you are so good that you never ought to have troubles." "If Nelly is susceptible to such a temptation as Mr. Westmoreland--Mr. Westmoreland, because he is rich--she would not have gone far with us, in any case," Elizabeth went on, putting aside the allusion to herself. "Europe would not have strengthened her. It would have been all the same. While, as for you, my darling--" "I--I!" broke in Patty excitedly. "I should have been happy now, and not as I am! I should have been saved from making a fool of myself if I had gone to Europe! I should have been worth something, and able to do something, there!" "How can you tell, dear child? And why do you suppose you have been foolish? _I_ don't think so. On the contrary, it has often seemed to me that you have been the sensible one of us all." "O, Elizabeth, don't laugh at me!" wailed Patty, reproachfully. "I laugh at you, my darling! What an idea! I mean it, every word. You see everything in a distorted and exaggerated way just now, because you are tired and your nerves are over-wrought. You are not yourself to-night, Patty. You will cheer up--we shall all cheer up--when we have had a good sleep and a little quiet time to think things over." "No, I am not myself, indeed," assented Patty, with moody passion. "I am not myself at all--to be made to feel so weak and miserable!" She put her face down in her hands and began to cry with more abandonment at the thought of how weak she had become. "But Patty, dearest, there must be something the matter with you," her motherly elder sister cried, much distressed by this abnormal symptom. "Are you feeling ill? Don't frighten me like this."