“I see.” Cassandra sat silent then, and Lady Thryng waited expectantly for her errand to be declared, curious about this beautiful young creature who had stepped into her home unannounced from out of the unknown, yet graciously kindly and unhurried. “I think I know. With us men are too careless. They think it isn’t necessary, I suppose.” Again she paused with parted lips, as if she would speak on, but could not.

“With you, men are too busy making money, I am told. It is necessary to have a leisure class like ours.”

“Oh!” Cassandra caught her breath and smiled. She was thinking of the silver pot her mother had enjoined her to take with her, and why. “But we do think a great deal of family; even the simplest of us care for that, although we have no leisure class —