Meanwhile, as these thoughts were passing through the mind of a very manly and strong and determined person, Annie herself was living through exciting times. She was not without feeling with regard to her uncle. After a certain fashion she loved him, but she did not love him nearly as well as she loved her own selfish pleasures and delights. She was sadly inexperienced, too, with regard to real illness. Her belief was that John Saxon had exaggerated, and that dear, kind Uncle Maurice would recover from this attack as he had done from so many others. Now she had much to attend to, and forced herself, therefore, after the telegram had gone, to dismiss the matter from her mind. As Annie had predicted, Lady Lushington did call Mabel into her private sitting-room soon after early breakfast on that eventful day, and did speak very seriously to her with regard to Mrs Priestley and her bill. "I don't pretend for a single moment," said Aunt Henrietta, "that I am poor, and that I am unable to meet a bill of three times that amount; but I do not choose you to be wantonly extravagant, Mabel, and it is simply an unheard-of and outrageous thing that a schoolgirl should spend seventy pounds on dress during one short term. You know I invariably pay your dressmaker at the end of each term. Now this bill is more than double the amount of any that I have hitherto paid for you. Will you kindly explain why it rises to such enormous dimensions?" Mabel was very much frightened, and stammered in a way that only increased her aunt's displeasure. "What is the matter with you, May? Can't you speak out? Are you concealing anything from me?" "Oh no, no, indeed, Aunt Hennie--indeed I am not! Only the fact is, I am quite certain Mrs Priestley must have made a mistake." "What is all this about?" said Annie Brooke, who entered the room at that moment. "Oh, we were talking business." "I beg your pardon. Shall I go away?" "No, don't, Miss Brooke," said Lady Lushington rather crossly; "you are really wanted here to help to clear matters. Seeing that I am honoured by the possession of so clever a niece as Mabel, I wish she would not on every possible occasion act the fool. She is as stupid over this outrageous bill as though she were an infant." "Well, Mabel," said Annie, "you know quite well that you had some nice dresses, hadn't you?" "Yes," said Mabel, who seemed to have a wonderful amount of added courage now that Annie had appeared on the scene. Then she nimbly quoted a description of the beautiful gowns which Annie had falsely described the day before. "Most unsuitable for a schoolgirl," said Lady Lushington. "And where are they, may I ask?" "Oh, I--I--left them at school," said Mabel. "Worse and worse; you seem to have lost your head."