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also going to Redwelts, and in whose company and care she would make the rest of her journey.
    But Belinda was loathe to leave. Her sister had been anxious and angry by turns ever since receiving the bad news from Costanze, and Bunny was heartsick at the thought of Arabella, rattling round the house all alone in a foul temper. Just now she was calm enough, though. Belinda found her sitting at the long, mahogany dining table that often doubled as a crafts center during the daylight hours, bending over a thin copper sheet with great concentration, and employing an engraving tool.
    “How does the calling card progress?” Belinda asked.
    The plate was shewn to her.
    “Oh!” she cried, clasping her hands in ecstasy. “How beautiful! It is the most exquisite design since . . . since . . .”
    She was unable to think of a suitable comparison. This may have been because there really was nothing in all the world to compare with Arabella’s engraving. But it is equally possible that Belinda was exaggerating her approval in order to flatter her sister into a better humor. We shall probably never know.
    “I am glad you like it, Bunny,” said Arabella, “because this illustration is going to serve as the crest for our new club. Birds of paradise 5 shall be carved in wood and plaster over the interior doorways, woven into the public room carpets, painted and glazed upon the club china service, and wrought in iron at the center of the window grilles. I am having stained-glass bird of paradise motifs inset in the upstairs windows, bird of paradise–embroidered napkins stocked in the linen cupboards, and bird of paradise bookends placed in the club library. The fireplace andirons shall be topped with them, as well!”
    “But . . .” said Belinda.
    “Yes?”
    “Crests are created by the College of Arms, you know, and only people with titles may apply for them. You have thought this up yourself!”
    “It is not my fault that Father failed to complete the application process,” said Arabella huffily. “Besides,” she added, “this isn’t for me, or for us; it is for the club. And once that becomes famous, it won’t matter whether the emblem is registered or not.” She smiled and gazed upon her handiwork. “Centuries hence, this clever device—two birds of paradise, perched aspectant on an azure field with tails braced and bent sinister—will be more instantly recognizable than the royal coat of arms, for all its harps and lions!”
    “Will it have a motto?” asked Belinda.
    “Of course it will have a motto! I have taken one from Epicurus, the wisest person to have lived so far: ‘Effugiat dolorem. Voluptatem!’ ”
    Belinda was never very good at Latin, having been educated by a governess who had seen no reason to teach it to her. Still, she had managed to pick up a smattering, from books and from Arabella.
    “ ‘Take pleasure in sadness . . . thou strumpet thou?’ ” she ventured.
    “What? No! It means, ‘Avoid pain. Pursue pleasure.’ Where do you get ‘strumpet’ from?”
    “Voluptatem. I supposed it to mean ‘voluptuary’.”
    “Well,” said her sister. “That’s not bad reasoning, actually. But you should have guessed from the ending that it was a verb, rather than a noun.”
    . . . And Arabella’s good humor was restored. Just like that.
    Wait! cries the skeptical reader, how can this be? The funding problems are long-term ones, with potentially serious consequences! Shewing off her knowledge and having the last word will not compensate our heroine for that, surely!
    No, reader; you are right enough there. But Arabella recognized that gratification in the short term is better than none at all. And she was an expert on the subject.
    “How are you proposing to pay for all these window grilles and napkins and bookends and fire irons?” Belinda ventured. “Have you spoken with Costanze? Perhaps you should arrange to stay with her for a while, and see who—”
    “I have anticipated you,