"Oh--." She fancied she caught a note of disappointment in Nona's voice. Poor Nona--her mother had long been aware that she had no enthusiasm, no transports of faith. She took after her father. How tired and sallow she looked in the morning light, perched on the arm of a chair, her long legs dangling! "You really ought to try to believe that yourself, darling," said Pauline brightly. Nona gave one of her father's shrugs. "Perhaps I will when I have more time." "But one can always _make_ time, dear." ("Just as I do," the smile suggested.) "You look thoroughly fagged out, Nona. I do wish you'd go to the wonderful new man I've just--" "All right, mother. Only, this morning I haven't come to talk about myself. It's Lita." "Lita?" "I've been wanting to speak to you about her for a long time. Haven't you noticed anything?" Pauline still wore her alert and sympathizing smile. "Tell me what, dear--let's talk it all over." Nona's brows were drawn in a troubled frown. "I'm afraid Jim's not happy," she said. "Jim? But, darling, he's been so dreadfully over-worked--that's the trouble. Your father spoke to me about it the other day. He's sending Jim and Arthur down to the island next month for a good long rest." "Yes; it's awfully nice of father. But it's not that--it's Lita," Nona doggedly repeated. A faint shadow brushed Pauline's cloudless horizon; but she resolutely turned her eyes from it. "Tell me what you think is wrong." "Why, that she's bored stiff--says she's going to chuck the whole thing. She says the life she's leading prevents her expressing her personality." "Good gracious--she dares?" Pauline sat bolt upright, the torn garment of her serenity fluttering away like a wisp of vapour. Was there never to be any peace for her, she wondered? She had a movement of passionate rebellion--then a terror lest it should imperil Alvah Loft's mental surgery. After a physical operation the patient's repose was always carefully guarded--but no one thought of sparing _her_, though she had just been subjected to so radical an extirpation. She looked almost irritably at Nona. "Don't you think you sometimes imagine things, my pet? Of course, the more we yield to suggestions of pain and distress the more--" "Yes; I know. But this isn't a suggestion, it's a fact. Lita says she's got to express her personality, or she'll do something dreadful. And if she does it will break Jim's heart." Pauline leaned back, vaguely fortified by so definite a menace. It was laughable to think of Lita Cliffe's threatening to do something dreadful to a Wyant! "Don't you think she's just over-excited, perhaps? She leads such a crazy sort of life--all you children do. And she hasn't been very strong since the baby's birth. I believe she needs a good rest as much as Jim does. And you know your father has been so wise about that; he's going to persuade her to go to Cedarledge for two or three weeks while Jim's in Georgia."