“He’s an engine, my dear aunt,” said Adrian.  “He isn’t a boy, or a man, but an engine.  And he appears to have been at high pressure since he came to town—­out all day and half the night.”

“He’s mad!” Mrs. Doria interjected.

“Not at all.  Extremely shrewd is Master Ricky, and carries as open an eye ahead of him as the ships before Troy.  He’s more than a match for any of us.  He is for me, I confess.”

“Then,” said Mrs. Doria, “he does astonish me!”

Adrian begged her to retain her astonishment till the right season, which would not be long arriving.

Their common wisdom counselled them not to tell the Foreys of their hopeful relative’s ungracious behaviour.  Clare had left them.  When Mrs. Doria went to her room her daughter was there, gazing down at something in her hand, which she guiltily closed.

In answer to an inquiry why she had not gone to take off her things, Clare said she was not hungry.  Mrs. Doria lamented the obstinacy of a constitution that no quantity of iron could affect, and eclipsed the looking-glass, saying:  “Take them off here, child, and learn to assist yourself.”

She disentangled her bonnet from the array of her spreading hair, talking of Richard, and his handsome appearance, and extraordinary conduct.  Clare kept opening and shutting her hand, in an attitude half-pensive, half-listless.  She did not stir to undress.  A joyless dimple hung in one pale cheek, and she drew long even breaths.

Mrs. Doria, assured by the glass that she was ready to show, came to her daughter.

“Now, really,” she said, “you are too helpless, my dear.  You cannot do a thing without a dozen women at your elbow.  What will become of you?  You will have to marry a millionaire.—­What’s the matter with you, child?”

Clare undid her tight-shut fingers, as if to some attraction of her eyes, and displayed a small gold hoop on the palm of a green glove.

“A wedding-ring!” exclaimed Mrs. Doria, inspecting the curiosity most daintily.

There on Clare’s pale green glove lay a wedding-ring!

Rapid questions as to where, when, how, it was found, beset Clare, who replied:  “In the Gardens, mama.  This morning.  When I was walking behind Richard.”

“Are you sure he did not give it you, Clare?”

“Oh no, mama! he did not give it me.”

“Of course not! only he does such absurd things!” Ithought, perhaps—­ these boys are so exceedingly ridiculous!” Mrs. Doria had an idea that it might have been concerted between the two young gentlemen, Richard and Ralph, that the former should present this token of hymeneal devotion from the latter to the young lady of his love; but a moment’s reflection exonerated boys even from such preposterous behaviour.

“Now, I wonder,” she speculated on Clare’s cold face, “I do wonder whether it’s lucky to find a wedding-ring.  What very quick eyes you have, my darling!” Mrs. Doria kissed her.  She thought it must be lucky, and the circumstance made her feel tender to her child.  Her child did not move to the kiss.