into the bargain.'

'Oh, she has a sister?'

'Yes; a little, white, crippled thing, peevish--cripples generally
are--but full of a curious force of some hidden kind. Isabel is very good
to her, and rather afraid of her. It seems to me that she is afraid of
all her belongings. I believe they put upon her, and she has as much
capacity as anybody I ever knew for letting herself be trampled upon.'

'What, that splendid, vivacious creature!' said Kendal incredulously. 'I
think I'd back her for holding her own.'

'Ah, well, you see,' said the American, with the quiet superiority of a
three weeks' acquaintance, 'I know something of her by now, and she's not
quite what you might think her at first sight. However, whether she is
afraid of them or not, it's to be hoped they will take care of her.
Naturally, she has a splendid physique, but it seems to me that London
tries her. The piece they have chosen for her is a heavy one, and then of
course society is down upon her, and in a few weeks she'll be the rage.'

'I haven't seen her at all,' said Kendal, beginning perhaps to be a
little bored with the subject of Miss Bretherton, and turning, eye-glass
in hand, towards the sculpture. 'Come and take me some evening.'

'By all means. But you must come and meet the girl herself at my sister's
next Friday. She will be there at afternoon tea. I told Agnes I should
ask anybody I liked. I warned her--you know her little weaknesses!--that
she had better be first in the field: a month hence, it will be
impossible to get hold of Miss Bretherton at all.'