“Then should I go also.  Your uncle has been very kind, but I sometimes feel that his kindness is a burden which I should not be strong enough to bear solely on my own shoulders.  And what should keep me here, then?” Mrs Dale as she said this felt that the “here” of which she spoke extended beyond the limits of the home which she held through the charity of her brother-in-law.  Might not all the world, far as she was concerned in it, be contained in that “here”?  How was she to live if both her children should be taken away from her?  She had already realised the fact that Crosbie’s house could never be a home to her,—­never even a temporary home.  Her visits there must be of that full-dressed nature to which Lily had alluded.  It was impossible that she could explain this to Lily.  She would not prophesy that the hero of her girl’s heart would be inhospitable to his wife’s mother; but such had been her reading of Crosbie’s character.  Alas, alas, as matters were to go, his hospitality or inhospitality would be matter of small moment to them.

Again in the afternoon the two sisters were together, and Lily was still more serious than her wont.  It might almost have been gathered from her manner that this marriage of hers was about to take place at once, and that she was preparing to leave her home.  “Bell,” she said, “I wonder why Dr Crofts never comes to see us now?”

“It isn’t a month since he was here, at our party.”

“A month!  But there was a time when he made some pretext for being here every other day.”

“Yes, when mamma was ill.”

“Ay, and since mamma was well, too.  But I suppose I must not break the promise you made me give you.  He’s not to be talked about even yet, is he?”

“I didn’t say he was not to be talked about.  You know what I meant, Lily; and what I meant then, I mean now.”

“And how long will it be before you mean something else?  I do hope it will come some day,—­I do indeed.”

“It never will, Lily.  I once fancied that I cared for Dr Crofts, but it was only fancy.  I know it, because—­” She was going to explain that her knowledge on that point was assured to her, because since that day she had felt that she might have learned to love another man.  But that other man had been Mr Crosbie, and so she stopped herself.

“I wish he would come and ask you himself.”

“He will never do so.  He would never ask such a question without encouragement, and I shall give him none.  Nor will he ever think of marrying till he can do so without—­without what he thinks to be imprudence as regards money.  He has courage enough to be poor himself without unhappiness, but he has not courage to endure poverty with a wife.  I know well what his feelings are.”

“Well, we shall see,” said Lily.  “I shouldn’t wonder if you were married first now, Bell.  For my part I’m quite prepared to wait for three years.”