That impulsive young woman burst into the sewing room.

“We’re all going,” she cried.  “Father, mother and Sabina.  It seems father has had an excellent offer to let the house furnished till the end of September, and he says that, as he likes high life, he will put in the time on the top of the Catskills.  He abandons me, and says that if he can borrow a shilling he is going to cut me off with it in his will.  He regrets the departure of the British Fleet, because he thinks he might have been able to raise a real English shilling aboard.  Dad only insists on one condition, namely, that he is to pay for himself, mother and Sabina, so he does not want a room with a balcony.  I said that in spite of his disinheritance I’d help the family out of my salary, and so he is going to reconsider the changing of his will.”

“We will settle the conditions when we reach the Catskills,” said Dorothy, smiling.

CHAPTER VII

 “A way they have in the navy”

Captain and Mrs. Kempt with Sabina had resided a week in the Matterhorn Hotel before the two girls arrived there.  They had gone direct to New York, and it required the seven days to find a flat that suited them, of which they were to take possession on the first of October.  Then there were the lawyers to see; a great many business details to settle, and an architect to consult.  After leaving New York the girls spent a day at Haverstock, where Dorothy Amhurst bought a piece of land as shrewdly as if she had been in the real estate business all her life.  After this transaction the girls drove to the station on the line connecting with the inclined railway, and so, as Katherine remarked, were “wafted to the skies on flowery beds of ease,” which she explained to her shocked companion was all right, because it was a quotation from a hymn.  When at last they reached their hotel, Katherine was in ecstasies.

“Isn’t this heavenly?” she cried, “and, indeed, it ought to be, for I understand we are three thousand feet higher than we were in New York, and even the sky-scrapers can’t compete with such an altitude.”

The broad valley of the Hudson lay spread beneath them, stretching as far as the eye could see, shimmering in the thin, bluish veil of a summer evening, and miles away the river itself could be traced like a silver ribbon.

The gallant Captain, who had been energetically browbeaten by his younger daughter, and threatened with divers pains and penalties should he fail to pay attention and take heed to instructions, had acquitted himself with eclat in the selection of rooms for Dorothy and his daughter.  The suite was situated in one corner of the huge caravansary, a large parlor occupying the angle, with windows on one side looking into the forest, and on the other giving an extended view across the valley.  The front room adjoining the parlor was to be Dorothy’s very own, and the end room belonged to Katherine, he said, as long as she behaved herself.  If Dorothy ever wished to evict her strenuous neighbor, all she had to do was to call upon the Captain, and he would lend his aid, at which proffer of assistance Katherine tossed her head, and said she would try the room for a week, and, if she didn’t like it, out Dorothy would have to go.