if you were a man on Wall Street, I should know you would be pretty safe
to come out a little more than even in any venture you made. You know
how to keep cool."

Bettina picked up her fallen cloak and laid it over her arm. It was made
of billowy frills of Malines lace, such as only Vanderpoels could buy.
She looked down at the amazing thing and touched up the frills with her
fingers as she whimsically smiled.

"There are a good many girls who can be trusted to do things in these
days," she said. "Women have found out so much. Perhaps it is because
the heroines of novels have informed them. Heroines and heroes always
bring in the new fashions in character. I believe it is years since a
heroine 'burst into a flood of tears.' It has been discovered, really,
that nothing is to be gained by it. Whatsoever I find at Stornham Court,
I shall neither weep nor be helpless. There is the Atlantic cable, you
know. Perhaps that is one of the reasons why heroines have changed. When
they could not escape from their persecutors except in a stage coach,
and could not send telegrams, they were more or less in everyone's
hands. It is different now. Thank you, father, you are very good to
believe in me."



CHAPTER VII

ON BOARD THE "MERIDIANA"

A large transatlantic steamer lying at the wharf on a brilliant, sunny
morning just before its departure is an interesting and suggestive