was not only forbearing but flattering in her manner to Nora.  She caressed her girl’s hand and spoke to her as mothers know how to speak when they want to make much of their girls, and to have it understood that those girls are behaving as girls should behave.  There was to be nobody to meet them tonight, as it had been arranged that Sir Marmaduke and Mrs Trevelyan should sleep at Siena.  Hardly a word had been spoken in the carriage; but upstairs, in their drawing-room, there came a moment in which Lucy and Sophie had left them, and Nora was alone with her mother.  Lady Rowley almost knew that it would be most prudent to be silent; but a word spoken in season, how good it is!  And the thing was so near to her that she could not hold her peace.  ‘I must say, Nora,’ she began, ‘that I do like your Mr Glascock.’

‘He is not my Mr Glascock, mamma,’ said Nora, smiling.

‘You know what I mean, dear.’  Lady Rowley had not intended to utter a word that should appear like pressure on her daughter at this moment.  She had felt how imprudent it would be to do so.  But now Nora seemed to be leading the way herself to such discourse.  ’Of course, he is not your Mr Glascock.  You cannot eat your cake and have it, nor can you throw it away and have it.’

’I have thrown my cake away altogether, and certainly I cannot have it.’  She was still smiling as she spoke, and seemed to be quite merry at the idea of regarding Mr Glascock as the cake which she had declined to eat.

‘I can see one thing quite plainly, dear.’

‘What is that, mamma?’

’That in spite of what you have done, you can still have your cake whenever you choose to take it.’

‘Why, mamma, he is engaged to be married!’

‘Mr Glascock?’

‘Yes, Mr Glascock.  It’s quite settled.  Is it not sad?’

‘To whom is he engaged?’ Lady Rowley’s solemnity as she asked this question was piteous to behold.

‘To Miss Spalding Caroline Spalding.’

‘The eldest of those nieces?’

‘Yes the eldest.’

‘I cannot believe it.’

’Mamma, they both told me so.  I have sworn an eternal friendship with her already.’

‘I did not see you speaking to her.’

‘But I did talk to her a great deal.’

‘And he is really going to marry that dreadful woman?’

‘Dreadful, mamma!’

’Perfectly awful!  She talked to me in a way that I have read about in books, but which I did not before believe to be possible.  Do you mean that he is going to be married to that hideous old maid, that bell-clapper?’

‘Oh, mamma, what slander!  I think her so pretty.’

‘Pretty!’

’Very pretty.  And, mamma, ought I not to be happy that he should have been able to make himself so happy?  It was quite, quite, quite impossible that I should have been his wife.  I have thought about it ever so much, and I am so glad of it!  I think she is just the girl that is fit for him.’