for
any hurry, except in the brain of that impetuous boy. You must correct
it, Mrs. Richard. Men are made to be managed, and women are born
managers. Now, if you were to let him know that you don't want to go
to-night, and let him guess, after a day or two, that you would very much
rather... you might affect a peculiar repugnance. By taking it on
yourself, you see, this wild young man will not require such frightful
efforts of persuasion. Both his father and he are exceedingly delicate
subjects, and his father unfortunately is not in a position to be managed
directly. It's a strange office to propose to you, but it appears to
devolve upon you to manage the father through the son. Prodigal having
made his peace, you, who have done all the work from a distance,
naturally come into the circle of the paternal smile, knowing it due to
you. I see no other way. If Richard suspects that his father objects for
the present to welcome his daughter-in-law, hostilities will be
continued, the breach will be widened, bad will grow to worse, and I see
no end to it."

Adrian looked in her face, as much as to say: Now are you capable of this
piece of heroism? And it did seem hard to her that she should have to
tell Richard she shrank from any trial. But the proposition chimed in
with her fears and her wishes: she thought the wise youth very wise: the
poor child was not insensible to his flattery, and the subtler flattery
of making herself in some measure a sacrifice to the home she had
disturbed. She agreed to simulate as Adrian had suggested.

Victory is the commonest heritage of the hero, and when Richard came on
shore proclaiming that the Blandish had beaten the Begum by seven minutes
and three-quarters, he was hastily kissed and congratulated by his bride
with her fingers among the leaves of Dr. Kitchener, and anxiously
questioned about wine.

"Dearest! Mr. Harley wants to stay with us a little, and he thinks we
ought not to go immediately--that is, before he has had some letters, and
I feel... I would so much rather..."

"Ah! that's it, you coward!" said Richard. "Well, then, to-morrow. We had
a splendid race. Did you see us?"

"Oh, yes! I saw you and was sure my darling would win." And again she
threw on him the cold water of that solicitude about wine. "Mr. Harley
must have the best, you know, and we never drink it, and I'm so silly, I
don't know good wine, and if you would send Tom where he can get good
wine. I have seen to