“I thought you chose it, my dear.”

“I looked at it, but, of course, I didn’t know what a house ought to be.  Amelia said it wasn’t nice, but he would have it.  He hates Amelia.  I’m sure of that, for he says everything he can to snub her and Mr Gazebee.  Mr Gazebee is as good as he, at any rate.  What do you think?  He has given Richard warning to go.  You never saw him, but he was a very good servant.  He has given him warning, and he is not talking of getting another man.  I won’t live with him without somebody to wait upon me.”

“My dearest girl, do not think of such a thing as leaving him.”

“But I will think of it, mamma.  You do not know what my life is in that house.  He never speaks to me,—­never.  He comes home before dinner at half-past six, and when he has just shown himself he goes to his dressing-room.  He is always silent at dinner-time, and after dinner he goes to sleep.  He breakfasts always at nine, and goes away at half-past nine, though I know he does not get to his office till eleven.  If I want anything, he says that it cannot be afforded.  I never thought before that he was stingy, but I am sure now that he must be a miser at heart.”

“It is better so than a spendthrift, Alexandrina.”

“I don’t know that it is better.  He could not make me more unhappy than I am.  Unhappy is no word for it.  What can I do, shut up in such a house as that by myself from nine o’clock in the morning till six in the evening?  Everybody knows what he is, so that nobody will come to see me.  I tell you fairly, mamma, I will not stand it.  If you cannot help me, I will look for help elsewhere.”

It may, at any rate, be said that things were not going well with that branch of the de Courcy family.  Nor, indeed, was it going well with some other branches.  Lord Porlock had married, not having selected his partner for life from the choicest cream of the aristocratic circles, and his mother, while endeavouring to say a word in his favour, had been so abused by the earl that she had been driven to declare that she could no longer endure such usage.  She had come up to London in direct opposition to his commands, while he was fastened to his room by gout; and had given her party in defiance of him, so that people should not say, when her back was turned, that she had slunk away in despair.

“I have borne it,” she said to Margaretta, “longer than any other woman in England would have done.  While I thought that any of you would marry—­”

“Oh, don’t talk of that, mamma,” said Margaretta, putting a little scorn into her voice.  She had not been quite pleased that even her mother should intimate that all her chance was over, and yet she herself had often told her mother that she had given up all thought of marrying.

“Rosina will go to Amelia’s,” the countess continued; “Mr Gazebee is quite satisfied that it should be so, and he will take care that she shall have enough to cover her own expenses.  I propose that you and I, dear, shall go to Baden-Baden.”