"That's just it," answered Ann uncertainly. "I sometimes wonder if I could--ought to--" She broke off, leaving her sentence unfinished. Lady Susan, apparently not noticing her embarrassment, gathered up her belongings preparatory to leaving the room. "Marrying to reform a rake never pays," she said in level tones. "It's like rolling a stone uphill." "But Tony isn't a rake!" protested Ann, flushing quickly. "There's any amount of good in him, and he might--might steady down if he were married." "Let him steady down before marriage, not after"--grimly. "A woman may throw her whole life's happiness into the scales and still fail to turn the balance. Without love--the love that can forgive seventy times seven and then not be tired--she'll certainly fail. And you don't love Tony." It was an assertion rather than a question, yet Ann felt that Lady Susan was waiting for an answer. "N-no," she acknowledged at last. "But I feel as though he belongs to me in a way. You see, Virginia 'left' him to me." "You're not called upon to marry a legacy," retorted Lady Susan. Ann smiled. "No, I suppose not." She was silent a moment. "I wish Sir Philip didn't lead him such a life. It's more than any man could be expected to stand." Lady Susan paused in the doorway. "Well, my dear, don't vex your soul too much about it all. However badly people mismanage our affairs for us, things have a wonderful way of working out all right in the long run." Left alone, Ann strolled out on to the balcony which overlooked the lake, and, leaning her arms on the balustrade, yielded to the current of her thoughts. Notwithstanding Lady Susan's cheery optimism, she was considerably worried about Tony. She could see so exactly what it was that fretted him--this eternal dancing attendance on Sir Philip, who insisted on the boy's accompanying him wherever he went, and she felt a sudden angry contempt for the selfishness of old age which could so obstinately bind eager, straining youth to its chariot wheels. It seemed to her that the older generation frequently fell very far short of its responsibility towards the younger.