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 the wish to save him from himself. Always she had regarded herself as the Van Roon's trustee, so that he should not be victimized by the cunning of Uncle Si, just as Sir Arthur was its trustee now, so that neither of them should be robbed by the cunning of the world.

She found all too soon, however, that it was vain to argue with him. What he had given, he had given. As far as he was concerned, that was the end of the whole matter.

"Very well then," said June vexedly, "if you won't, you won't. And I shall present that picture to the nation in your name, and then you won't have a penny to live on and you'll have to go on working in a shop all your life for a small wage to make other people rich, instead of being able to study and travel and make yourself a great artist."

She felt sure the half nelson was on him now. Even he, dreamer that he was, must really bend to the force of pure reasoning! Beyond a doubt she had got him. But he was not playing quite fair it seemed. With one of his little dancing blushes that would have been deadly in a girl, he was forced to own that he had not put all his cards on the table.

To June's sheer amazement he was keeping a little matter of twelve hundred a year or so up his sleeve.

"Didn't know you had a rich aunt," said June amazedly.

"Not my rich aunt. Your rich uncle." The odd creature grew tawnier, more girl-like than ever.

June lacking a clue as yet could only frown. "Come again. I don't get you." It was not the Miss Babraham idiom, but with her patience giving out and a new strength and sanity in her veins, she was in danger