A gleam of sudden perception illumined the girl’s face.  For a moment wonder seemed tending to mirth; but it took another turn, and became naive displeasure.

“You think so?” broke from her, impetuously.  “You really think that’s why she wanted them to be engaged?”

“It’s only what I had fancied, my dear—­”

“But I shouldn’t wonder if you were right!  Indeed, I shouldn’t!  Now that you put it in that way—.  I remember that my aunt didn’t care for me to see much of Mr. Lashmar.  It amused me, because, to tell you the truth, Mrs. Toplady, I should never have thought of Mr. Lashmar as anything but a friend.  I feel quite sure I shouldn’t.”

“I quite understand that,” replied the listener, the corners of her lips very eloquent.

“Such a thing had never entered my mind,” pursued May, volubly and with emphasis.  “Never!”

“It may have entered someone else’s mind, though,” interposed Mrs. Toplady, again maturely arch.

“Oh, do you think so!” exclaimed the girl, with manifest pleasure.  “I’m sure I hope not.  But, Mrs. Toplady, how could my aunt oblige such a man as Mr. Lashmar to engage himself against his will?”

“You must remember, May, that, for the moment at all events, Mr. Lashmar’s prospects seem to depend a good deal on Lady Ogram’s good will.  She has a great deal of local influence.  And then—­by the bye, is Mr. Lashmar quite easy in his circumstances?”

“I really don’t know,” May answered, with an anxious fold in her forehead “Surely he, too, isn’t quite poor?”

“I hardly think he is wealthy.  Isn’t it just possible that something may depend upon the marriage—?”

Mrs. Toplady’s voice died away in a considerate vagueness.  But May was not at all disposed to leave the matter nebulous.

“If he is really poor,” she said, in a clear-cut tone, “it’s quite natural that he should want to marry someone who can help him.  But why didn’t he choose someone really suitable?”

“Poor Mr. Lashmar!” sighed the other, humorously.  “If he had no encouragement, my dear May!”

“But he didn’t wait to see whether he had any or not!”

“What if he had very good reason for knowing that lady Ogram would never, never, never consent to—­something we needn’t specify?”

“But,” May ejaculated, “surely he needn’t take it for granted that my aunt would never change her mind.  If it’s as you say, how foolishly he must have behaved!  It doesn’t concern me in the least.  You see I can speak quite calmly about it.  I’m only sorry and astonished that he should be going to marry—­well, after all, we must agree that Miss Bride isn’t quite an ideal for him, however one looks at it.  Of course it’s nothing to me.  If it had been, I think I should feel more offended than sorry.”

“Offended?”

“That he had taken for granted that I had no will of my own, and no influence with my aunt.”