“Well, it isn’t so bad as that, darling—­it’s only about your mother coming to us so soon.  I’ve had a letter from home, and it seems that father has had losses and can’t help me out as he intended to do.  He’s always either losing or making piles of money, so don’t bother your precious head about that.  In six months he’ll probably be making piles again, but, in the meantime, mother suggests that we should postpone taking a house, and come and live with her for a few months.”

“I’d rather live on your income, George, no matter how small it is.  I’m an awfully good manager, and you’d be surprised to see how far I can make a little money go.  Why can’t we take an apartment somewhere in an inexpensive neighbourhood—­one just big enough for mother and you and me?”

“We couldn’t live half so well in the first place, and, besides, I’d hate like the devil to see you working yourself to death and losing your looks.  That’s just exactly what Patty is doing.  She was the family’s greatest investment, you know.  Everything we had for years was spent on her because she was such a ripping beauty, and mother set her heart on her marrying nothing less than a duke.  So we sent her abroad to be educated and squandered a fortune on her clothes, and then, just as mother was gloating over her triumphs, the very day after the Duke of Toxbridge proposed to her, Patty walked out one morning and married Billy King at the Little Church Around the Corner.  Billy, of course, hasn’t a cent to his name except what he makes painting blue pictures, and that’s precious little.  They’re up on the West Side now, living in four rooms with neighbours who fry onions at nine o’clock in the morning next door to them, and half the time Patty hasn’t even a maid, I believe, and has to do her work with the help of a charwoman.”

“And is she happy?” There was eagerness in Gabriella’s voice, for she was sure that she should love Patty.

“Oh, yes, Patty is happy, but mother isn’t.  It’s rough on mother.”

“I think she ought to have told your mother before she married.”

“Well, Patty thought she could stand the fuss better after she’d done it than she could before.  She said she needed the support of knowing they couldn’t stop it.  Cheeky, wasn’t it?”

“And is she really so beautiful?”

“Ripping,” said George; “simply ripping.”

“I know I shall love her.  Is she dark or fair?”

“I never thought about it, but she’s a towering beauty—­something between dark and fair, I suppose.  She has golden hair, you know.”

His arm was around her, and lifting her earnest face to his, Gabriella began in her softest voice:  “I shouldn’t mind a bit living like that, George—­honestly I shouldn’t.”

“Yes, you would.  It would be rotten.”

“I wish you would tell me just how much we shall have to live on, dear.  Even if it is very, very little, it would be so much better not to expect anything from your father.  If the worst comes to the worst, I can always go back to work, you know, and I feel as if I ought to help because you are so generous about wanting mother to live with us.”