How Julian loved to bring his fiancée Jill costly presents... but she forbade him!

It gladdened him to give to a person he loved, and it pained him when people took his giving amiss.

My sister was bandaging my hand, which I had cut while opening a tin of peas, when Yola Standrish came in... She came in through the kitchen door, as was her habit, then passed among the rooms, poking her head into each one.

Yola was my sister Jill's companion... but they had not met of late, for Yola had been away for some weeks... and she had, of course, plenty of news.

She ignored me... looked at my soft, dark sister and said without preamble:

So you are going to marry Julian Tremlett?...

My sister, who was bandaging my hand, smiled at her and said nothing.

Yola sat down on the edge of the piano, saying:

My God... you are twenty-two and the days are running... But this Julian...

I caught a glimpse of him once when they came to the village... his father is an elderly man, self-made, as they say... anyhow, they have turned the place they bought into something like a splendid palace... I say, my dear, you have done well for yourself.

My sister addressed her words to me: How did you do this to your hand?...

As though seeing me for the first time, Yola said: Oh, you have grown, Laura... you are eighteen.

I said: Nearly nineteen, rather.

She ignored me again and went on: But how did it happen?... You were always like one hiding from company... then a stranger comes along to be the owner of a palace next door to you... and you catch him.

My sister laughed... I know exactly what that laugh means... a sound she makes when she is trying to hide her feeling... Then she said quietly:

It was not as you say, Yola... The family came to our neighborhood months ago, but we never mixed with them at all... At last the father came to call on my father; as for his son Julian, he stayed on in London, managing his father's business.

My sister patted my hand and let it go, then said:

And do you know how we met the first time?...

Yola said: At his parents' house, bandaging the wound of one of the family, as you did just now.

— Quite the contrary, and worse than that... I was cleaning the chicken coop at our house...

he had come from his father to invite us to lunch at their place.

— So... love at first sight.

— No... nothing of the kind, but I found him close to my inclinations.

— You mean you don't love him... a marriage of convenience, then...