She admits that.«
    »By-the-bye, what are likely to be the relations between her and Miss
Doran?«
    »I have wondered. They seem to keep on terms of easy correspondence. But
doesn't Cecily herself throw any light on that point?«
    Mallard made a pause before answering.
    »You must remember that I know very little of her. I have never spoken more
intimately with her than you yourself have. Naturally, since she has ceased to
be a child, I have kept my distance. In fact, I shall be heartily glad when the
next three years are over, and we can shake hands with a definite good-bye.«
    »What irritates you?« inquired Spence, with a smile which recognized a phase
of his friend's character.
    »The fact of my position. A nice thing for a fellow like me to have charge
of a fortune! It oppresses me - the sense of responsibility; I want to get the
weight off my shoulders. What the deuce did her father mean by burdening me in
this way?«
    »He foresaw nothing of the kind,« said Spence, amused. »Only the unlikely
event of Trench's death left you sole trustee. If Doran purposed anything at all
- why, who knows what it may have been?«
    Mallard refused to meet the other's look; his eyes were fixed on the
horizon.
    »All the same, the event was possible, and he should have chosen another man
of business. It's worse than being rich on my own account. I have dreams of a
national repudiation of debt; I imagine dock-companies failing and banks
stopping payment. It disturbs my work; I am tired of it. Why can't I transfer
the affair to some trustworthy and competent person; yourself, for instance? Why
didn't Doran select you, to begin with - the natural man to associate with
Trench?«
    »Who never opened a book save his ledger; who was the model of a reputable
dealer in calicoes; who -«
    »I apologize,« growled Mallard. »But you know in what sense I spoke.«
    »Pray, what has Cecily become since I saw her in London?« asked the other,
after a pause, during which he smiled his own interpretation of Mallard's
humour.
    »A very superior young person, I assure you,« was the reply, gravely spoken.
»Miss Doran is a young woman of her time; she ranks with the emancipated; she is
as
