“Is your cough better?” she asked. “I’m going to give you some special stuff to-night for it. No, it isn’t at all nasty.” She turned back to Esther. “May I introduce Mr. Harley––he’s the most interesting person in the whole house. He writes stories and things, Mr. Harley, this is Miss Shepstone––a great friend of mine.”

Harley bowed. He was pale, delicate-looking young man with fine dark eyes.

56

“You never told me that you knew Miss Shepstone,” he said to June.

“I didn’t know her till this afternoon,” she answered promptly; “but I make friends quickly, as you know.”

“You’ll like Harley,” she told Esther presently in an undertone. “He’s very clever, but so delicate, poor boy! He ought to live in the country instead of in London. He’s the sort of person I should love to help if I were rich.”

“It must be wonderful to be rich,” Esther said. There was a little flush in her cheeks; she was really enjoying herself. “It’s the dream of my life to have enough money to be able to do anything I like,” she added earnestly. “Just for a month! If I could be really rich just for one month I wouldn’t mind going back to being poor again.”

Miss Mason said “Rubbish!” briskly. “Money can’t buy happiness, my dear, and don’t you forget it. My people think it can, and lots of other people think the same. It only shows what fools they are. It was the money my people couldn’t get over when I declined to marry Micky Mellowes....” She made a little wry face. “I remember my mother coming into my room one night in her dressing-gown––poor soul!––when she heard I’d told Micky there was nothing doing, and saying tragically: ‘June, you must be mad––stark, staring mad! Why, the man’s as rich as Crœsus!’”

“Rich!” Esther was conscious of an odd little sinking at her heart. “Is Mr. Mellowes rich, then?” she asked constrainedly.

Miss Mason was helping herself to a pat of butter. She held it poised for a moment on the end of her knife while she answered––

“Rich? I should think he is! He’s one of the richest men in London.”

“One of the richest men in London!––but he–––” Esther had been going to add “But he told me that he was poor;” she only just checked the words in time.

June nodded.

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