debt since I began to help you.'

'I know, I know; but I'll have them now, for certain. I've told you
before that Banks took all my ideas with him when he dropped into the
river,' Mrs. Banks said hopelessly, and on Henrietta's journey to
Radstowe it was of Mrs. Banks that she chiefly thought. It seemed as
though she were deserting a friend.

She was surprised by the smallness of Nelson Lodge as she walked up
the garden path; she had pictured something more imposing than this
low white building, walled off from the wide street; but within she
discovered an inconsistent spaciousness. The hall was panelled in
white wood, the drawing-room, sparsely but beautifully furnished, was
white too, and she immediately felt, as indeed she looked, thoroughly
out of harmony with her surroundings. She waited there, in her cheap
black clothes, like some little servant seeking a situation; but her
welcome, when it came, after a rustling of silken skirts on the
stairs, assured her that she was acknowledged as a member of the
family. Sophia took her tenderly to her heart and murmured, 'Oh, my
dear, how like your father!' Caroline patted her cheek and said, 'Yes,
yes, Reginald's daughter, so she is!' And a moment later, Rose
entered, faintly smiling, extending a cool hand.

Henrietta's acutely feminine eye saw immediately that her Aunt Rose
was supremely well-dressed, and all her past ideas of grandeur, of
plumed hats and feather boas and ornamental walking shoes, left her
for ever. She knew, too, that clothes like these were very costly,
beyond her dreams, but she decided, in a moment, to rearrange and
subdue the black trimming of her hat.