Astra (Musaicum Romance Classics). Grace Livingston Hill

as long as she lived. She wouldn't be what people called wealthy, but she would have enough and would not need to worry about money. He had arranged her inheritance in such a way that she would be safe from ordinary financial depressions. He had so invested the money he was leaving her that it would not be likely to depreciate in value, that is, as far as the human mind was able to estimate possibilities. And he had put the whole estate in the charge of this honored friend, Mr. Sargent, whom he trusted as himself, or even more, because he was a wise, conservative businessman who did not believe in taking chances. He would be as honorable with money entrusted to his care as if it were his own, perhaps even more so.

      Her father gave Astra a little book in which all the facts were set down and warned her not to let it pass out of her hands. He had gone over each item and hoped he had made them plain to her. He had told her to read over these items once or twice each year, so that she would never be without knowledge of her own affairs.

      But Astra had been so overwhelmed that her father would speak of the possibility of his going from her, that the financial matters seemed of very little account then. She had so dreaded to think of the day when he would be gone, that she did not give her mind to considering her fortunes very seriously. Although she had taken in the fact that even before she was of age, money need not worry her. Her usual modest allowance would come to her regularly, increasing a little each year, to meet her own modest needs.

      But of late, there had been many extra expenses that her cousin Miriam considered necessities and had insisted upon since she was living with them. Things like visits to the beauty parlor and the continual purchasing of fashionable high-priced garments, many evening frocks, and even a new fur coat when her old one was still perfectly good. Her allowance was growing more and more inadequate to meet the requirements, and she scarcely had enough to buy little things for herself that she really wanted, like books and tickets to hear fine music. She was reluctant to spend her money on a multiplicity of garments which her cousin Clytie wore oftener than she did herself, especially the fur coat and the evening dresses. In fact, Clytie had borrowed the fur coat and several of the evening dresses to take to California with her.

      Before he left her, her father had said, "Of course, your natural home after I am gone would be with your mother's niece Miriam, I suppose, if she is still living and wants you. But I have never quite trusted her husband Marmaduke's judgment in financial matters, and that is why I am explaining your financial affairs to you carefully, even though you are so young and the days when you will come into your property are so comparatively far away. Of course, Cousin Duke may be all right. I haven't known him long, you know, but I have an instinctive distrust of his business methods and his standards of right and wrong, so I want you to be able to handle your own affairs yourself, with advice from Mr. Sargent, who will be in charge of your affairs and be a real guardian to you. I don't want you to have to be dependent upon Duke's advice or assistance in any way. I think you will always find Mr. Sargent ready to help.

      "Also I have made ample provision that you may be able to pay a reasonable sum for your board wherever you stay after I am gone."

      The time had come all too soon, and, almost in a daze, she had let Miriam and Duke take her back with them to their home.

      As she thought over these things, her father's words, which had been almost forgotten, seemed clearly voiced in her ears again. She began to feel that she had been very wrong and careless to let her affairs go in such a slipshod manner since going to live with her cousins. She had spent far too much on showy apparel that she seldom used. Cousin Duke had been kind, of course, and she had almost come to feel that if her father were here now he would change his ideas about him. He had been almost more kind and helpful to her than her cousin Miriam. Yet now she realized that he had been the one who had encouraged Miriam to buy expensive garments, to join clubs and dress in a showy way, and on several occasions he had told Astra that as she lived with them, she must dress accordingly. He didn't want people to think she had to scrimp in her wardrobe. He said it wouldn't be good for his business to have people think that.

      There was another thing that had greatly troubled Astra, and that had been the constant differences of opinion between herself and her young cousin Clytie, which also brought on differences of opinion between herself and Miriam.

      Clytie Lester was three years younger than Astra, but old for her years and badly spoiled. Whatever she had wanted all her life had been given her by her parents if they could possibly manage it, and she had wanted a great many things. When it was not possible for her parents to get what she wanted, Clytie had ways of getting things for herself, and one of those ways of late had been to borrow money of Astra.

      As time went on, a good many of things Clytie wanted were not things that Astra considered right, and therefore Astra's problem about lending money to her young cousin had been growing more and more complicated, and her conscience was more and more harassed about what she ought to do. She did not wish to inform upon Clytie. It was not her idea of good ethics. But Clytie was constantly putting her into situations where it was either necessary to do so, or else to actually lie about things when she was questioned.

      Cousin Miriam was not gentle, unworldly, and conscientious, as Astra remembered her own mother to have been. She was pretty and flighty, and rather inclined to be worldly and have easy standards of living. But she was very strict with regard to certain forms and ceremonies, and her ideas of what Clytie should or should not do were not at all Clytie's ideas. It followed, therefore, that Clytie did many things in direct disobedience to her mother's commands and got away with it in the main, often from behind the screen of an unwilling Astra.

      "Now Clytie," her mother would say, "I want you to go straight to the library and get those books you say you have to have for your schoolwork and come right home! I don't want you lingering to talk with anyone or to take a walk or anything. I want you at home inside of an hour to try on the dresses that the dressmaker has been altering. Astra, you walk down with her and see that she gets back on time. Just remind her, won't you?"

      Clytie would frown behind her mother's back and make a mouth of annoyance at Astra, but Miriam would see that Astra went.

      Always Clytie had her plans, as Astra had known she would have, and instead of going to the library herself to pick out her books, she would send Astra in, telling her she simply couldn't stay in the house, she had such a bad headache and needed a bit of air.

      "I'll meet you right here on the step, Astra," she would say, and settle down serenely on the bench beside the door. So Astra would go. For Clytie was well versed in ways to make her suffer for it if she didn't. Clytie knew how to create a scene at the dinner table afterward and show how unaccommodating her cousin had been, when she had "such a blazing headache," and Astra would be left to bear the disapproval of both mother and father while poor Clytie would be pitied and petted. So Astra often did things which her conscience did not approve. It seemed the only way.

      And when she would come out from the library with her arms full of books Clytie had ordered, there would be no Clytie sitting on the bench; neither was she to be seen either up or down the street.

      Astra would settle down at last, knowing full well that all this had been planned for her undoing. She knew that Miriam would blame her if Clytie was not back at the proper time. Nearly two years' experience had taught her this only too well. It was a little thing perhaps, but she would be filled with vexation as she watched anxiously, meantime glancing at her watch. An hour would have gone by since she left Clytie on the bench and Astra would start to wonder. Was it conceivable that Clytie had grown weary of waiting and gone back home without her? Should she dare go to the telephone and call the house to see? But if Clytie was not yet home, what kind of a storm would that raise? She could well conceive the light in which she herself would be placed.

      So she would worry along for another fifteen minutes, and then just as she rose with her armful of books to go and telephone, she would sight Clytie's coronet of pink roses which she called a hat, tilted over her right eye, as she sauntered leisurely down the street surrounded by three young men! That was just about what she had always to expect of Clytie. It had happened too many times. And there was nothing for Astra to do but turn and follow the hilarious young gang down the street like a humble minion till they reached the corner where Clytie always parted with what her mother considered