"Looks quite decent," commented Walderhurst. The knitting was getting on
famously.

"It was odd you should see Sir Bruce Norman that day," Agatha Slade was
saying. "It must have been just before he was called away to India."

"It was. He sailed the next day. I happen to know, because some friends
of mine met me only a few yards from your picture and began to talk
about him. I had not known before that he was so rich. I had not heard
about his collieries in Lancashire. Oh!"--opening her big eyes in
heart-felt yearning,--"how I wish I owned a colliery! It must be so
_nice_ to be rich!"

"I never was rich," answered Lady Agatha, with a bitter little sigh. "I
know it is hideous to be poor."

"_I_ never was rich," said Emily, "and I never shall be. You"--a little
shyly--"are so different."

Lady Agatha flushed delicately again.

Emily Fox-Seton made a gentle joke. "You have eyes like blue flowers,"
she said. Lady Agatha lifted the eyes like blue flowers, and they were
pathetic.

"Oh!" she gave forth almost impetuously, "sometimes it seems as if it
does not matter whether one has eyes or not."

It was a pleasure to Emily Fox-Seton to realise that after this the
beauty seemed to be rather drawn toward her. Their acquaintance became