’Have you?  I am very glad to hear it.  Then there is hope for me.  Now I am going to get up.’

Freda had made some good resolutions during the intervals of her pain, the principal of which were, entirely to forget Colonel Vaughan, or to feel only intense contempt for him; to be more gentle with her father, and more considerate of his nerves and peculiarities; more patient with the servants, school children, and poor people generally; to do more good, and to be more useful to others; but she had not made these resolutions in Gladys’ spirit.  They were not made with prayer for help, but in her own strength.

In the same way, she threw off the remains of her headache, and went downstairs again with a prouder step and a prouder heart than when she went up last.

In the library she found her father writing a letter and looking quite animated.  He was so sprucely dressed that she asked him if he were going out.

‘Not at present,’ he said.  ’I am so glad you are come down again.  There is so much to tell you; I have scarcely been able to keep myself from letting you hear the news.  Do you know it is all settled, and Gwynne Vaughan is actually engaged to Miss Nugent!  Isn’t he a lucky fellow?’

Freda felt suddenly very sick; she sat down in an arm-chair near her father, but did not speak.  He looked at her, and said,—­

’My dear, you are very pale still.  Coming downstairs has been too much, and dressing, and—­and—­all that sort of thing.  Let me ring for Gladys.’

’No, I shall be better directly.  Only the exertion—­yes, you were telling me—­’

Strange that Mr Gwynne never supposed that Freda could be in love with any one.  She had refused so many, and was so different from other girls, that the thought never entered his mind, and he had left her alone with Colonel Vaughan, and would have done so with Cupid himself, quite thoughtless of results.  Moreover, his own natural inactivity and love of ease, led him to allow her to take her own course, as long as she left him alone to take his.

’Yes; I was saying that it is now quite settled.  I believe he proposed the very ball-night to Miss Nugent, at least, and the next day went in form, and after certain preliminaries, was duly accepted by all parties.  Of course, he is quite unexceptionable, and she can do as she likes now she is of age.  Lady Mary expected a title, and I don’t think she is quite satisfied.  She told me—­at least—­they say—­at least—­of course, there are always objections, and—­and—­all that sort of thing, you know.’

Freda was too hard at work, trying to overcome a very strong desire to burst into tears, to observe that her father had not once used his favourite phrase, or lost the thread of his words, until he came to ‘Lady Mary told me,’ so when he stopped, she simply said, ‘Really!  Yes!’ and he went on again.