’Oh, you are not? that is very good of you.  I am deeply grateful for such an assurance.’

‘But I like him better than anyone I ever saw in my life before.’

’You have seen to many people.  You have had such a wide area for choice.’

’No; I know I have been kept like a nun in a convent:  but I don’t think when I go into the world I shall ever see anyone I should like better than Mr. Hammond.’

’Wait till you have seen the world before you make up your mind about that.  And now, Lesbia, leave off talking and thinking like a child; look me in the face and listen to me, for I am going to speak seriously; and with me, when I am in earnest, what is said once is said for ever.’

Lady Maulevrier grasped her granddaughter’s arm with long slender fingers which held it as tightly as the grasp of a vice.  She drew the girl’s slim figure round till they were face to face, looking into each other’s eyes, the dowager’s eagle countenance lit up with impassioned feeling, severe, awful as the face of one of the fatal sisters, the avengers of blood, the harbingers of doom.

‘Lesbia, I think I have been good to you, and kind to you,’ she said.

‘You have been all that is kind and dear,’ faltered Lesbia.

’Then give me measure for measure.  My life has been a hard one, child; hard and lonely, and loveless and joyless.  My son, to whom I devoted myself in the vigour of youth and in the prime of life, never loved me, never repaid me for my love.  He spent his days far away from me, when his presence would have gladdened my difficult life.  He died in a strange land.  Of his three children, you are the one I took into my heart.  I did my duty to the others; I lavished my love upon you.  Do not give me cursing instead of blessing.  Do not give me a stone instead of bread.  I have built every hope of happiness or pleasure in this world upon you and your obedience.  Obey me, be true to me, and I will make you a queen, and I will sit in the shadow of your throne.  I will toil for you, and be wise for you.  You shall have only to shine, and dazzle, and enjoy the glory of life.  My beautiful darling, for pity’s sake do not give yourself over to folly.’

‘Did not you marry for love, grandmother?’

’No, Lesbia.  Lord Maulevrier and I got on very well together, but ours was no love-match.’

’Does nobody in our rank ever marry for love? are all marriages a mere exchange and barter?’

’No, there are love-matches now and then, which often turn out badly.  But, my darling, I am not asking you to marry for rank or for money.  I am only asking you to wait till you find your mate among the noblest in the land.  He may be the handsomest and most accomplished of men, a man born to win women’s hearts; and you may love him as fervently as ever a village girl loved her first lover.  I am not going to sacrifice you, or to barter you, dearest.  I mean to marry you to the best and noblest young man of his day.  You shall never be asked to stoop to the unworthy, not even if worthlessness wore strawberry leaves in his cap, and owned the greatest estate in the land.’