‘I never thought of that,’ she said slowly, ’and I don’t think it had that effect on Christina Balfour—­in fact, I am sure of it.  She is like a different creature, so much brighter and happier; and I am sure a week or two at Bourhill will do wonders for poor Lizzie Hepburn.  If you saw her you would be quite sorry for her.  She is such an interesting girl, so beautiful, and she has a great deal of character, quite different from Christina.  I have asked them down, and of course I can’t retract my invitations; they may have gone down to Miss Peck already, for aught I know.  Promise to come down to Bourhill and see poor Lizzie, then I am sure you will say I have done quite right.’

A cold sweat broke over George Fordyce, and he was fain to take several turns between the window and the door to recover himself.  He could almost have laughed aloud at the awful absurdity of the whole situation, only it had its tragic side too.  He felt that his chance was almost over.  He could not expect Liz Hepburn’s visit to Bourhill to be barren of consequences the most serious; but he would wear the mask as long as possible, and make one more endeavour to save himself.  He came back to the hearth, and, laying his hand hurriedly on the heart of the girl he loved with all the tenderness that was in him, he said, in that pleading, winning way so few women could resist,—­

’My darling, if I ask you, won’t you take Aunt Isabel’s advice?  I know I haven’t any right yet to dictate to you, even if I wished to do it, but won’t you believe that we only advise what is the very best for you?  Couldn’t you, instead of having the girls at Bourhill, send them to some other country place?  It would only cost a very little more.’

‘But that wouldn’t be the same thing at all,’ said Gladys wilfully.  ’And if I were to retract my invitation now, they would never have the same faith in me again.  I would not on any account disappoint them.’

‘Even to please me?’ he queried, with a slightly injured air.

‘Even to please you,’ she repeated, in the same wilful tone.

‘And will it always be the same?’ he asked then.  ’Will you never allow me to have any say in your affairs?’

‘I hoped you would help me to do good to people,’ she said slowly, giving utterance for the first time to the feeling of disappointment and misgiving which sometimes oppressed her when she thought of her relation towards George Fordyce.

‘My dear, you will get all your thanks in one day,’ he said dryly.  ’I know the class you have to deal with.  They’ll take all you have to give them, and laugh in your face.  They have no such quality as gratitude in them.’

Gladys curled her lips in scorn.

’How unhappy you must be to have so little faith in humankind.  That has not been my experience; but we shall never agree on that point.  Shall we go up-stairs now?’

Her perfect independence of and indifference to his opinion, betrayed in the careless ease of her manner as she rose from the hearth, exasperated him not a little.