"Did you suggest they should come to me?"
"No. How could you have them here in London? I said something about the holidays, but you must write to your sister about it."
"We'll have them down for Christmas, and give them a good time. I'll write at once, and if the boy is worth placing at a good school, I'll do it."
"That will be splendid. Oh dear, I do envy you your opportunities!"
"It is you pegging away at me, that makes me seize them." And it was true. Slowly, but surely Mrs. Burke was finding out the delights of sharing some of her wealth with those in need. Before Rowena had come, she made her banker her almoner; now she began to take interest in many individual cases, whom Rowena discovered. Sometimes when her spirits flagged, she would say: "I dare say I shall end my days in some secluded country cottage; I am sure you will gradually get all my wealth from me for your 'deserving poor'!"
And Rowena would reply with a glow in her eyes, "You might do many worse things than that."
[CHAPTER IV]
AN OLD FRIEND
"And I perceived no touch of change"
. . . . . . . .
"But found him all in all the same."
Tennyson.
"MY dear girl, you must come with me to Lady Graeme's At Home this afternoon."