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44 Elms and a few of his people to a "Selection" that Courtenay had "taken up" years before, when practising near a squatter uncle's in the country. The venture was only an experiment, which for lack of funds and scope did not promise much success.

The doctor had prevailed upon his wife to accompany him to his study. He had been looking into accounts. The good lady protested that "no good came of brooding over what could not be altered."

"Times will change soon," she remarked, toying with an invitation that had just come to Lady Woolenough's "At Home."

"They will change—for the worse," was the man's reply. "We are getting deeper and deeper into the mire, all to keep up these false appearances, and to maintain a position amongst people who possess thousands for our hundreds."

"But you must have regard to your practice and to the girls' prospects."

"What would become of both if anything happened to me?" he replied bitterly. "My very policies are encumbered. If I died to-morrow, you would be beggars. And people would say, truly, that I had lived a lie."

"But every one else is in the same position! What squatter or merchant but is in the hands of his bank? Who are there pay cash for what they eat and use and wear? You might ticket every coat, or dress, or house you see as belonging, if all had their own, to some wretched tradesman."

"The fact that others are dishonest, or are content to live in a 'fool's paradise,' is no consolation to me."

At this juncture Hilda with evident excitement entered the room, followed by her sister, looking guilty but resolute.