"Ah, dear imperious one! And yet you will kill me with this so-called kindness."
"On the contrary, I will make you a strong woman if I can. Now I am going to ring to order the carriage."
She bustled about, had her way, and to the amazement of every one Mrs. Carnegie submitted to a drive for an hour in an open carriage.
All the time they were out Frances regaled her with the stories of the poor and suffering people. She told her stories with great skill, knowing just where to leave off, and just the points that would be most likely to interest her companion. So interesting did she make herself that never once during the drive was Mrs. Carnegie heard to mention the word "nerves," and so practical and to the point were her words that the rich woman's purse was opened, and two five-pound notes were given to Frances to relieve those who stood most in need of them.
"Positively I am better," explained Mrs. Carnegie, as she ate her dainty dinner with appetite.
An hour later she was seated cosily in the arbor which faced down the celebrated Rose Walk, a place well known to all the visitors at Arden.
"You are a witch," she said to Frances; "for positively I do declare the racking, torturing pain in my back is easier. The jolting of the carriage ought to have made it ten times worse, but it didn't. I positively can't understand it, my love."
"You forget," said Frances, "that although the jolting of the carriage might have tried your nerves a very little, the soft, sweet air and change of scene did them good."
"And your conversation, dearest--the limpid notes of that sweetest voice. Ah, Frances, your tales were harrowing!"
"Yes; but they were more harrowing to be lived through. You, dear Mrs. Carnegie, to-day have relieved a certain amount of this misery."
"Ah, my sweet, how good your words sound! They are like balm to this tempest-tossed heart and nerve-racked form. Frances dear, we have an affinity one for the other. I trust it may be our fate to live and die together."
Frances could scarcely suppress a slight shudder. Mrs. Carnegie suddenly caught her arm.
"Who is that radiant-looking young creature coming down the Rose Walk?" she exclaimed. "See--ah, my dear Frances, what a little beauty! What style! what exquisite bloom!"