The girls stepped out through the open French window, interlaced their arms round one another and disappeared.

“They are good girls,” said the mother, “but Kate has a will of her own.  Mr. Ingram, you will allow me to take you into my confidence.  I am often puzzled to know how to act towards Catherine.  She is a good girl, but I can’t lead her.  She is only seventeen, only just seventeen.  Surely that is too young an age to walk quite without leading strings.”

Mr. Ingram was an old bachelor, but he was one of those mellow, gentle, affectionate men who make the most delightful companions, whose sympathy is always ready, and tact always to the fore.  Mr. Ingram was full of both sympathy and tact, but he had also a little gentle vanity to be tickled, and when a handsome woman, still young, appealed to him with pathos in her eyes and voice, he laid himself, metaphorically, at her feet.

“My dear madam,” he responded, “it is most gratifying to me to feel that I can be of the least use to you.  Command me at all times, I beg.  As to Miss Catherine, who can guide her better than her excellent mother?  I don’t know much about you, Mrs. Bertram, but I feel—­forgive me, I am a man of intuition—­I feel that you are one to look up to.  Miss Catherine is a fortunate girl.  You are right.  She is far too young to walk alone.  Seventeen, did you say—­pooh—­a mere child, a baby.  An immature creature, ignorant, innocent, fresh, but undeveloped; just the age, Mrs. Bertram, when she needs the aid and counsel of a mother like you.”

Mrs. Bertram’s dark eyes glowed with pleasure.

“I am glad you agree with me,” she said.  “The fact is, Mr. Ingram, we have come to the Manor to retrench a little, to economize, to live in retirement.  By-and-bye, I shall take Catherine and Mabel to London.  As a mother, I have duties to perform to them.  These, when the time comes, shall not be neglected.  Mr. Ingram, I must be very frank, I don’t want to know the good folk of Northbury.”

Mr. Ingram started at this very plain speaking.  He had lived for thirty years with the Northbury people.  They had not vulgarized him; their troubles and their pleasures alike were his.  His heart and soul, his life and strength were given up to them.  He did not feel himself any the less a gentleman because those whom he served were, many of them, lowly born.  He started, therefore, both inwardly and outwardly at Mrs. Bertram’s plain speech, and instantly, for he was a man of very nice penetration, saw that the arrival of this lady, this brilliant sun of society, in the little world of Northbury, would not add to the smoothness of his lot.

Before he could get in a word, however, Mrs. Bertram quickly continued: 

“And Catherine is determined to make a friend of Beatrice Meadowsweet.”

“She is quite right, Mrs. Bertram.  I introduced Miss Catherine to Beatrice yesterday.  They will make delightful companions; they are about the same age—­I can vouch for the life and spirit possessed by my friend Bee, and if I mistake not Miss Catherine will be her worthy companion.”