with her in London. I will go to her. She is a charming woman. But I
must first see Rosy--SEE her."

Mr. Vanderpoel thought the matter over during a few moments of silence.

"You do not wish your mother to go with you?" he said presently.

"I believe it will be better that she should not," she answered. "If
there are difficulties or disappointments she would be too unhappy."

"Yes," he said slowly, "and she could not control her feelings. She
would give the whole thing away, poor girl."

He had been looking at the carpet reflectively, and now he looked at
Bettina.

"What are you expecting to find, at the worst?" he asked her. "The kind
of thing which will need management while it is being looked into?"

"I do not know what I am expecting to find," was her reply. "We know
absolutely nothing; but that Rosy was fond of us, and that her marriage
has seemed to make her cease to care. She was not like that; she was not
like that! Was she, father?"

"No, she wasn't," he exclaimed. The memory of her in her short-frocked
and early girlish days, a pretty, smiling, effusive thing, given to
lavish caresses and affectionate little surprises for them all, came
back to him vividly. "She was the most affectionate girl I ever knew,"
he said. "She was more affectionate than you, Betty," with a smile.