"Oh, yes! to Kate," said Cecil suddenly.
"Kate has had a very narrow escape," said Miss Forester. "When Sir John Williamson came down to see her six weeks ago, he only performed that critical operation as a dernier ressort. It turned out successful, but she will not be strong enough for real hard work for some time; she is a very brilliant and gifted creature, but she has not got your stamina and working powers; her brain is of the imaginative and creative order. Such brains are delicate, and the nervous systems of persons so endowed are very easily put out of order. Kate ought to take a year's rest, and then come back to us. I don't know well how to propose that, however, because——"
"Because of what?" asked Cecil.
"Because something has happened. Poor Kate's little money has all been swallowed up by one of those rascally lawyers."
Miss Forester said the last words with such sudden vehemence that Cecil could not help laughing.
"The man went bankrupt," she said abruptly. "He had invested poor Kate's money in some scheme of his own, and at the present moment the poor child has not got sixpence."
"Does she know it?" asked Cecil.
"No; and I don't mean her to know it until after the holidays. Have you heard anything about it, Cecil?"
"Yes, from Alice Wright; the lawyer who went bankrupt is a cousin of Kate's. She told me a week ago, but she said she would not breathe it to anyone else."