to marry you, I wonder? I don't think that it would be very difficult."

Virginia blushed, and moved uneasily in her chair.

"Please don't," she begged. "I do not wish to think of anything of the
sort. My uncle says that presently I am to help him."

"To help him," Mrs. Trevor Harrison repeated thoughtfully.

Virginia nodded.

"Yes! I don't exactly know how, but that is what he said."

Her chaperon looked thoughtful for a moment. So there was a motive
somewhere, then! But, after all, what concern was it of hers? She was an
old friend of the Duge family, and Phineas Duge had made it very well
worth her while to look after his niece.

They were interrupted by some callers. It was an informal "At Home"
which Mrs. Harrison was giving in honour of her young charge. Soon the
rooms were crowded with people, and Virginia, slim, elegant, perfectly
gowned, looking like a picture, with her pale oval face and wonderful
dark grey eyes, was the centre of a good deal of attention. And in the
midst of it all a girl, whom as yet she had not noticed, touched her on
the arm and drew her a little away. She started with surprise when she
saw that it was Stella.

"Come, my dear cousin," Stella said, "I want to have a little talk with
you. Won't you sit down with me here? I am sure you have been doing your
duty admirably."