’Of course it has been an anxious thing for me to decide who I should ask to be the mistress of my family, the mother of my girl; but I think I’ve decided rightly at last.  The lady I have chosen—­’

‘Tell us at once who she is, there’s a good man,’ said straightforward Miss Browning.

‘Mrs. Kirkpatrick,’ said the bridegroom elect.

’What! the governess at the Towers, that the countess makes so much of?’

’Yes; she is much valued by them—­and deservedly so.  She keeps a school now at Ashcombe, and is accustomed to housekeeping.  She has brought up the young ladies at the Towers, and has a daughter of her own, therefore it is probable she will have a kind, motherly feeling towards Molly.’

‘She’s a very elegant-looking woman,’ said Miss Phoebe, feeling it incumbent upon her to say something laudatory, by way of concealing the thoughts that had just been passing through her mind.  ’I’ve seen her in the carriage, riding backwards with the countess; a very pretty woman, I should say.’

‘Nonsense, sister,’ said Miss Browning.  ’What has her elegance or prettiness to do with the affair?  Did you ever know a widower marry again for such trifles as those?  It’s always from a sense of duty of one kind or another—­isn’t it, Mr. Gibson?  They want a housekeeper; or they want a mother for their children; or they think their last wife would have liked it.’

Perhaps the thought had passed through the elder sister’s mind that Phoebe might have been chosen for there was a sharp acrimony in her tone; not unfamiliar to Mr. Gibson, but with which he did not choose to cope at this present moment.

’You must have it your own way, Miss Browning.  Settle my motives for me.  I don’t pretend to be quite clear about them myself.  But I am clear in wishing heartily to keep my old friends, and for them to love my future wife for my sake.  I don’t know any two women in the world, except Molly and Mrs. Kirkpatrick, I regard as much as I do you.  Besides, I want to ask you if you will let Molly come and stay with you till after my marriage?’

‘You might have asked us before you asked Madam Hamley,’ said Miss Browning, only half mollified.  ’We are your old friends; and we were her mother’s friends, too; though we are not county folk.’

‘That’s unjust,’ said Mr. Gibson.  ‘And you know it is.’

’I don’t know.  You are always with Lord Hollingford, when you can get at him, much more than you ever are with Mr. Goodenough, or Mr Smith.  And you are always going over to Hamley.’

Miss Browning was not one to give in all at once.

’I seek Lord Hollingford as I should seek such a man, whatever his rank or position might be:  usher to a school, carpenter, shoemaker, if it were possible for them to have had a similar character of mind developed by similar advantages.  Mr. Goodenough is a very clever attorney, with strong local interests and not a thought beyond.’