Widdowson was growing impatient, when his relative at length appeared.  She threw herself into a deep chair, crossed her legs, and gazed at him mockingly.

‘Well, it isn’t quite so bad as I feared, Edmund.’

‘What do you mean?’

’Oh, she’s a decent enough little girl, I can see.  But you’re a silly fellow for all that.  You couldn’t have deceived me, you know.  If there’d been anything—­you understand?—­I should have spotted it at once.’

‘I don’t relish this kind of talk,’ observed Widdowson acidly.  ’In plain English, you supposed I was going to marry some one about whom I couldn’t confess the truth.’

‘Of course I did.  Now come; tell me how you got to know her.’

The man moved uneasily, but in the end related the whole story.  Mrs. Luke kept nodding, with an amused air.

’Yes, yes; she managed it capitally.  Clever little witch.  Fetching eyes she has.’

‘If you sent for me to make insulting remarks—­’

’Bosh!  I’ll come to the wedding gaily.  But you’re a silly fellow.  Now, why didn’t you come and ask me to find you a wife?  Why, I know two or three girls of really good family who would have jumped, simply jumped, at a man with your money.  Pretty girls too.  But you always were so horribly unpractical.  Don’t you know, my dear boy, that there are heaps of ladies, real ladies, waiting the first decent man who offers them five or six hundred a year?  Why haven’t you used the opportunities that you knew I could put in your way?’

Widdowson rose from his seat and stood stiffly.

’I see you don’t understand me in the least.  I am going to marry because, for the first time in my life, I have met the woman whom I can respect and love.’

’That’s very nice and proper.  But why shouldn’t you respect and love a girl who belongs to good society?’

‘Miss Madden is a lady,’ he replied indignantly.

‘Oh—­yes—­to be sure,’ hummed the other, letting her head roll back.  ’Well, bring her here some day when we can lunch quietly together.  I see it’s no use.  You’re not a sharp man, Edmund.’

‘Do you seriously tell me,’ asked Widdowson, with grave curiosity, ’that there are ladies in good society who would have married me just because I have a few hundreds a year?’

’My dear boy, I would get together a round dozen in two or three days.  Girls who would make good, faithful wives, in mere gratitude to the man who saved them from—­horrors.’

‘Excuse me if I say that I don’t believe it.’

Mrs. Luke laughed merrily, and the conversation went on ill this strain for another ten minutes.  At the end, Mrs. Luke made herself very agreeable, praised Monica for her sweet face and gentle manners, and so dismissed the solemn man with a renewed promise to countenance the marriage by her gracious presence.

When Rhoda Nunn returned from her holiday it wanted but a week to Monica’s wedding, so speedily had everything been determined and arranged.  Miss Barfoot, having learnt from Virginia all that was to be known concerning Mr. Widdowson, felt able to hope for the best; a grave husband, of mature years, and with means more than sufficient, seemed, to the eye of experience, no unsuitable match for a girl such as Monica.  This view of the situation caused Rhoda to smile with contemptuous tolerance.