“I! what do you mean?”

Lady Tyrrell laughed again.

“Oh!” in a tone of relief, “I can explain all that to you.  All the Strangeways family were at Rockpier the winter before you came, and I made great friends with Margaret Strangeways, the eldest sister.  I wanted very much to hear about her, for she has had a great deal of illness and trouble, and I had not ventured to write to her.”

“Oh! was that the girl young Debenham gave up because her mother worried him so incessantly, and who went into a Sisterhood?”

“It was she who broke it off.  She found he had been forced into it by his family, and was really attached elsewhere.  I never knew the rights of it till I saw the brother to-night.”

“Very praiseworthy family confidence!”

“Camilla, you know I object to that tone.”

“So do most young ladies, my dear—­at least by word.”

“And once for all, you need have no fancies about Mr. Lorimer Strangeways.  I am civil to him, of course, for Margaret’s sake; and Lady Susan was very kind to me; but if there were nothing else against him, he is entirely out of the question, for I know he runs horses and bets on them.”

“So does everybody, more or less.”

“And you! you, Camilla, after what the turf has cost us, can wish me to encourage a man connected with it.”

“My dear Lena, I know you had a great shock, which made the more impression because you were such a child; but you might almost as well forswear riding, as men who have run a few horses, or staked a few thousands.  Every young man of fortune has done so in his turn, just by way of experiment—­as a social duty as often as not.”

“Let them,” said Eleonora, “as long as I have nothing to do with them.”

“What was that pretty French novel—­Sybille, was it?—­where the child wanted to ride on nothing but swans?  You will be like her, and have to condescend to ordinary mortals.”

“She did not.  She died.  And, Camilla, I would far rather die than marry a betting man.”

“A betting man, who regularly went in for it!  You little goose, to think that I would ask you to do that!  As you say we have had enough of that!  But to renounce every man who has set foot on a course, or staked a pair of gloves, is to renounce nine out of ten of the world one lives in.”

“I do renounce them.  Camilla, remember that my mind is made up for ever, and that nothing shall ever induce me to marry a man who meddles with the evils of races.”

“Meddles with the evils?  I understand, my dear Lena.”

“A man who makes a bet,” repeated Eleonora.

“We shall see,” was her ladyship’s light answer, in contrast to the grave tones; “no rules are without exceptions, and I only ask for one.”

“I shall make none.”

“I confess I thought you were coming to your senses; you have been acting so wisely and sensibly ever since you came home, about that young Frank Charnock.”