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CHAPTER XVII.

WHATEVER'S LOST, IT FIRST WAS WON.

"But knowledge is

Bought only with a weary care,

And wisdom means a world of pain."

"OH for a punkah," sighed Betty, seated in the drawing-room of No. 39 on a hot afternoon in June, "and a black to pull it! Not a London one, Bob, so you need not look so startled, but a real bona fide Indian. Now, Susy, you are doing nothing, so come here; nothing that signifies, that is," as Susy began remonstrating,-"so come and fan me whilst I work."

"I will," said Nell, who was also in the room.

'Thanks, Nell:" and Betty took up her sewing. "Oh for the good old days when Nan assisted on these festive occasions! I hope," looking round the room, "that the next marriage that occurs in the family will be in the winter; if not, I give you all fair warning, I shall not be here to grace the scene. Promise Nell."

"Yes, I promise," said Nell, laughing. "Why,

Betty," laying her hands on her sister's, "how hot you are! I wonder how you can work!"

"It is rather difficult," said Betty, resignedly; "but as there are not many others in this house who are even capable of making up favours" "But I could," interrupted Nell.

"No, Nell. There you make a mistake; our intellects are all too superior to be able to do anything useful. Cyril could paint a picture, mother play a sonata, you could ravish our ears with a performance on the violin, and I could write a book-but none of us can sew a piece of ribbon into the form of a bow. Look at that horned monster," pointing to the one just completed, "who would ever imagine the fever I have worked myself up into over it?"

Here Betty's hands dropped idly in her lap, and she leant back in her chair.

"Poor Betty!" said Nell, sympathisingly; “I am afraid you are overtired with this worry and excitement; but you will soon be all right when it is all over, and everything is as it was before-then you can get some rest."

"Rest!" repeated Betty, almost to herself,-" of course if it all is as it was before; but if not? Then becoming aware of the words that had escaped her, "This will not do, Nell. Why, if I do not put more energy into my work, half the company will have to go undecorated to-morrow; in which case," she concluded, lightly, "I should think the wedding would scarcely be legal."

"Betty," said Nell, eagerly, "I have thought of

a capital plan for helping you. Will you lie down on the sofa for a quarter of an hour, whilst I go and see if it is capable of being carried out?"

"The idea is a good one, Nell. I think if I were to be still for a quarter of an hour I should work with a better will afterwards," and Elizabeth moved across the room to the sofa.

Five minutes later, Miss Mainwaring, putting on her bonnet preparatory to taking a drive, was informed that a little Miss Stevens was below, and would be much obliged if she would see her, if only for a minute.

"Ask her to come up here," Delicia said. But on Grey's volunteering it was the little lame girl, she said, "Oh then you had better leave her in the drawing-room—I am just going down."

"Oh, dear Miss Mainwaring, are you going out?" was Nelly's exclamation, and a shade of disappointment crept over her face as Delicia entered the room.

"I was, Nell. But tell me, do you want me? I was not going to do anything very important."

And then Nell confided all her anxieties. Of how there was no one to do anything at home; "and Betty is ill, I am sure of it," the girl went on, her eyes filling as she spoke. "She does too much. There is no one to help her, you see; because, of course," she added, loyally, "mother has to look after father, and Nan is always with Mr Fullerton, and there are so many children;" and she sighed as she looked round the cool, darkened room and

thought of the scene of confusion she had left, and of Betty's white tired face. "And I thought, perhaps," she concluded timidly, raising her pretty, pleading eyes.

"Yes, my dear, and your thoughts were quite correct, for they were that if I had nothing important to do this afternoon, I would go over and see if I could not help Elizabeth with the favours. And it was most fortunate, was it not, that you did not miss me, for in five minutes I should have started."

Then they went down the steep old-fashioned stairs together.

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Grey, you can tell Robinson when he comes that I shall not want the carriage to-day. Come, Nell." And the two started across the Square, little Nell's crutches making a sad echo down the silent hot street.

It was not very often that Miss Mainwaring found her way to No. 39; in fact, as she followed Nelly up-stairs, she could not recall having ascended them since the never-to-be-forgotten night of the At Home-a night for her full of most painful associations; for, for some time after the discoveries made that evening, she had avoided all the Stevens family. Even now, when the whole of the Past was so utterly past that she did not think she would have recalled it, even if it had lain in her power to do so, she could not resist glancing upwards towards the door of the studio where she had gone that night to see Cyril and Miss Arbuthnot looking together at "Engaged."

"No, Cyril is out," Nell said in answer to her glance; "he has gone to see Cicely." Then she opened the drawing-room door, and stood aside for Miss Mainwaring to pass in.

On the sofa, looking very white and tired, with closed eyes, rested Elizabeth. At the farther end of the room was a group of the younger children, and in the midst of them, on a chair, stood Christopher, reciting "The Death of Montrose."

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Chris, could you not speak a little lower?" Betty asked, but without opening her eyes.

"No, Betty-impossible," replied Christopher, who seemed much heated and exhausted with his labours; "as it is, they will not attend and do their parts. The grim Geneva ministers.' Now, Jack and Bob, you know you are the 'grim Geneva ministers' why don't you move?"

"I'm not," said Jack, throwing himself down on the ground. "I want to be the man to cut off his head; and if you don't let me," rising from the floor, "I'll scream." And here he became aware of Miss Mainwaring's presence, and stood still, awe-struck.

Betty started up at the sudden silence. "I beg your pardon, Delicia, I never heard you come in; but the children make such a noise, that it is impossible to remark such a trifle as the opening of a door. Christopher, could you not go and act somewhere else?"

"Where?" cried all the children in chorus. "There is the dining-room," began Betty. "Yes," interrupted Susy, "we tried that."