“She had been engaged to Mr. Brownlow long before claims were known,” began Mrs. Evelyn.

“Oh yes!  It was very ingeniously arranged, only the discovery was made too soon.  I have it on the best authority.  When the girl came to stay with Flora, her aunt asked for an interview—-such a nice sensible woman—-so completely understanding her position.  She said it was such a distress to her not to be qualified to take her niece into society, yet she could not take her home, living so near, to be harassed by this young man’s pursuit.”

“I saw Mrs. Gould myself,” said Mrs. Evelyn.  “I cannot say I was favourably impressed.”

“Oh, we all know she is not a lady; never professes it poor thing.  She is quite aware that her niece must move in a different sphere, and all she wants is to have her guarded from that young Brownlow.  He follows them everywhere.  It is quite the business of Flora’s life to avoid him.”

“Perhaps you don’t know that Mrs. Brownlow took that girl out of a farmhouse, and treated her like a daughter, merely because they were second or third cousins.  The engagement to Allen Brownlow was made when the fortune was entirely on his side.”

“Precaution or conscience, eh?” said the old lady, laughing.  “By the by, you were intimate with Mrs. Brownlow abroad.  How fortunate for you that nothing took place while they had such expectations!  Of no family, I hear, of quite low extraction.  A parish doctor he was, wasn’t he?”

“A distinguished surgeon.”

“And she came out of some asylum or foundling hospital?”

“Only the home for officers’ daughters,” said Mrs. Evelyn, not able to help laughing.  “Her father, Captain Allen, was in the same regiment with Colonel Brownlow, her husband’s brother.  I assure you the Menellas and Goulds have no reason to boast.”

“A noble Spanish family,” said the dowager.  “One can see it every gesture of the child.”

It was plain that the old lady intended Mr. Barnes’s hoards to repair the ravages of dissipation on the never very productive estates of Clanmacnalty, and that while Elvira continued in Lady Flora’s custody, there was little chance of a meeting between her and Allen.  The girl seemed to be submitting passively, and no doubt her new friends could employ tact and flattery enough to avoid exciting her perverseness.  No doubt she had been harassed by Allen’s exaction of response to his ardent affection, and wearied of his monopoly of her.  Maiden coyness and love of liberty might make her as willing to elude his approach as her friends could wish.

Once only, at a garden party, did he touch the tips of her fingers, but no more.  She never met his eye, but threw herself into eager flirtation with the men he most disliked, while the lovely carnation was mounting in her cheek, and betraying unusual excitement.  It became known that she was going early in July into the country with some gay people who were going to give a series of fetes on some public occasion, and then that she was to go with Lady Clanmacnalty and her unmarried daughter to Scotland, to help them entertain the grouse-shoot-party.