“I have it, I told Fox to get it to-day,” Richard said.  “You shall have it!”

Nina had turned suddenly white; it was as if a last little hope had been killed.

“You have it!” she whispered.  “He cashed it, then!”

“He cashed it the next morning,” Richard said.  Nina was silent for a moment.

“How you must laugh at me, Harriet!” she said then.

“I?  Laugh at you!” Harriet said, stricken.  “My darling girl, I am the last woman in the world who could do that!  I was only your age, Nina, when I met him—­you know that story.  Why, Nina, you’re but eighteen, after all, you’ll have many and many an affair before the right man comes along,” Harriet said.  “You’ll look back on this some day, and say, ’It was an experience, and I learned from it!  It is only going to make me happier and more sure when the man whom I really love comes to me!’ Aren’t you much richer now, in actual knowledge of men, than Amy and Francesca, who haven’t had anything but school flirtations?”

Nina, sitting between Richard and Harriet on the bed, looked wistfully from one face to another.

“I’ll try to make it so, Harriet!” she said.  And somewhat timidly she added, “Father—­and Harriet—­shall you feel dreadfully if I say that I don’t want to go to Brazil?  I’ll tell you why.  Ward is going out to the Gardiner ranch, and Bruce is going, too, and it seems to me that riding and camping and living in the open air will be—­well, will seem better to me than just being on the steamer!  I dread seeing strange places and meeting people,” said Nina.  “The Gardiner girls were simply darling to me the term they were in school, and—­don’t you remember, Harriet?—­we were the only people who took them out for Christmas and Easter holidays, and they like me!  And—­if you wouldn’t be too disappointed, Harriet, I believe I would like it better!”

“My darling girl,” Harriet said, warmly, “you must do what seems right to you.  But you won’t need me?” she added, tactfully.

“Well, you see Mrs. Gardiner and Mrs. Hopper are sisters,” Nina explained, readily, “and they’ll be with us.  But if you’d like to come—­we are going camping in the most glorious canon that you ever saw!” Nina interrupted herself with sudden enthusiasm.  “And I am so glad I really can ride!  I’d feel so horribly if I couldn’t!”

“I think you’ll have a wonderful two months of it,” Harriet said, “and then Granny’ll be coming West, to spend the winter in Santa Barbara, and that will be delightful, too!  And now, Nina love, it’s after eleven o’clock,” she ended with a change of tone, “and you have had a terrible day!  We will have to do some more shopping to-morrow afternoon, and try on the riding habits, and do a thousand things.  And, Nina,” Richard heard her add tenderly, when his daughter had given him a rather sober good-night kiss at the door of her room, “whenever you feel sad and depressed about it, just remember to say to yourself, ’This won’t last!  In a few months the sting will all be gone!’”