Clifford sat staring, blushing and laughing.  “I shall mind it a good deal!” he declared.

“Ah, not too much, you know; that would be uncivil.  But I give you leave to mind it a little; especially if you have a passion for Miss Acton.  Voyons; as regards that, you either have or you have not.  It is very simple to say it.”

“I don’t see why you want to know,” said Clifford.

“You ought to want me to know.  If one is arranging a marriage, one tells one’s friends.”

“Oh, I ’m not arranging anything,” said Clifford.

“You don’t intend to marry your cousin?”

“Well, I expect I shall do as I choose!”

The Baroness leaned her head upon the back of her chair and closed her eyes, as if she were tired.  Then opening them again, “Your cousin is very charming!” she said.

“She is the prettiest girl in this place,” Clifford rejoined.

“‘In this place’ is saying little; she would be charming anywhere.  I am afraid you are entangled.”

“Oh, no, I ’m not entangled.”

“Are you engaged?  At your age that is the same thing.”

Clifford looked at the Baroness with some audacity.  “Will you tell no one?”

“If it ’s as sacred as that—­no.”

“Well, then—­we are not!” said Clifford.

“That ’s the great secret—­that you are not, eh?” asked the Baroness, with a quick laugh.  “I am very glad to hear it.  You are altogether too young.  A young man in your position must choose and compare; he must see the world first.  Depend upon it,” she added, “you should not settle that matter before you have come abroad and paid me that visit.  There are several things I should like to call your attention to first.”

“Well, I am rather afraid of that visit,” said Clifford.  “It seems to me it will be rather like going to school again.”

The Baroness looked at him a moment.

“My dear child,” she said, “there is no agreeable man who has not, at some moment, been to school to a clever woman—­probably a little older than himself.  And you must be thankful when you get your instructions gratis.  With me you would get it gratis.”

The next day Clifford told Lizzie Acton that the Baroness thought her the most charming girl she had ever seen.

Lizzie shook her head.  “No, she does n’t!” she said.

“Do you think everything she says,” asked Clifford, “is to be taken the opposite way?”

“I think that is!” said Lizzie.

Clifford was going to remark that in this case the Baroness must desire greatly to bring about a marriage between Mr. Clifford Wentworth and Miss Elizabeth Acton; but he resolved, on the whole, to suppress this observation.

CHAPTER IX