"Could you not persuade her to give you the money now instead of leaving it to you?" suggested the young man. "She could keep enough for all she wanted, and hand over the rest of the property to you, surely."
"Of course she could, if she would," replied Mabel; "but she does not like me, and—"
"Well, I am not surprised at that," said Nicholas frankly; "you've never behaved like a sister to her, so it is hardly strange she does not care much about you. Nobody can be much more horrid than you when you choose, Mab."
"And nobody nicer, too!" and the girl leaned towards him, a real love-light in those glorious eyes of hers. "Oh, Nick, say that nobody can be nicer than your madcap Mab!"
The young man laughed, and patted her cheek, as he might have done the head of a dog. "You can be nice if you choose," said he, with tardy, reluctant praise. "The worst of it is that when you're horrid you're so very nasty, and when you're nice, you're so altogether too luscious;" and he ended in a grimace.
Meanwhile, as Margie was sitting in Mrs. Beach's room, the door opened, and a woman entered, dressed in the uniform of a professional nurse, with white apron and cap. Margie had often seen her in the house, meeting her on the stairs, and exchanging greetings with her sometimes when they happened to encounter each other in the long corridor. For this passage, passing outside Margie's room, ran by the head of the staircase to the east wing of the house. Margie had never been in the east wing, but she understood from the servants that the rooms there on the third floor were given up to an invalid relative of Mrs. Beach and her nurse. Sometimes Mrs. Beach paid the invalid a visit; but very few of the others seemed to take much notice of the poor creature who spent her life in those rooms. Once or twice a week the doctor called, but hardly any one else entered the east wing, unless Mabel Raye's one visit of five minutes about thrice in the year could be counted.
"What is it, nurse?" asked Mrs. Beach anxiously, as the woman appeared.
"Miss Clara wants a book from the library, ma'am," replied nurse, "and wishes me to go and get it, and take a bit of a walk besides, as I've not been out for several days. But she's not very well, ma'am, and I don't feel as if I could leave her alone, so I came to ask you if you'd please arrange for some one to sit in the room while I'm away. I won't be gone over an hour, ma'am."
Mrs. Beach turned to Margie. "Will you go, Margery?" she said. "My poor afflicted niece, Miss Mabel's half-sister, is a stranger to you as yet, I suppose; but you won't mind that, will you?"
"Not at all, ma'am; I will go to her with pleasure."