“We all try, my dear, but many of us fail to try with sufficient energy of purpose.  It is only by doing our duty that we can hope to be happy, whether in single life or in married.”

“Miss Dale means to be a dragon of perfection in the performance of hers,” said Crosbie.

“A dragon!” said Lady Julia.  “No; I hope Miss Lily Dale will never become a dragon.”  And then she turned to her nephew.  It may be as well to say at once that she never forgave Mr Crosbie the freedom of the expression which he had used.  He had been in the drawing-room of Guestwick Manor for two minutes only, and it did not become him to talk about dragons.  “Bernard,” she said, “I heard from your mother yesterday.  I am afraid she does not seem to be very strong.”  And then there was a little conversation, not very interesting in its nature, between the aunt and the nephew as to the general health of Lady Fanny.

“I didn’t know my aunt was so unwell,” said Bell.

“She isn’t ill,” said Bernard.  “She never is ill; but then she is never well.”

“Your aunt,” said Lady Julia, seeming to put a touch of sarcasm into the tone of her voice as she repeated the word,—­“your aunt has never enjoyed good health since she left this house; but that is a long time ago.”

“A very long time,” said Crosbie, who was not accustomed to be left in his chair silent.  “You, Dale, at any rate, can hardly remember it.”

“But I can remember it,” said Lady Julia, gathering herself up.  “I can remember when my sister Fanny was recognised as the beauty of the country.  It is a dangerous gift, that of beauty.”

“Very dangerous,” said Crosbie.  Then Lily laughed again, and Lady Julia became more angry than ever.  What odious man was this whom her neighbours were going to take into their very bosom!  But she had heard of Mr Crosbie before, and Mr Crosbie also had heard of her.

“By-the-by, Lady Julia,” said he, “I think I know some very dear friends of yours.”

“Very dear friends is a very strong word.  I have not many very dear friends.”

“I mean the Gazebees.  I have heard Mortimer Gazebee and Lady Amelia speak of you.”

Whereupon Lady Julia confessed that she did know the Gazebees.  Mr Gazebee, she said, was a man who in early life had wanted many advantages, but still he was a very estimable person.  He was now in Parliament, and she understood that he was making himself useful.  She had not quite approved of Lady Amelia’s marriage at the time, and so she had told her very old friend Lady de Courcy; but—­ And then Lady Julia said many words in praise of Mr Gazebee, which seemed to amount to this; that he was an excellent sort of man, with a full conviction of the too great honour done to him by the earl’s daughter who had married him, and a complete consciousness that even that marriage had not put him on a par with his wife’s relations, or even with his wife.  And then it came out that Lady Julia in the course of the next week was going to meet the Gazebees at Courcy Castle.