She very much wanted to ask Mrs
Keswick how Mr Croft happened to be here at this time, but she felt that
her very brief acquaintance with the lady would not warrant the
discussion of a subject like that.

"She is very much the kind of woman I thought she was," said Roberta to
herself, when, after some further hospitable remarks from Mrs Keswick,
the two went to the parlor together to find Mr Croft. But that
gentleman, having been deserted by all the ladies, was walking up and
down the greensward in front of the house, smoking a cigar. Mrs Keswick
went out to him, and greeted him very cordially, begging him to excuse
her for not being able to see him as soon as he came.

Lawrence set all this aside in his politest manner, but declared himself
very much disappointed in not seeing Mr Keswick, and also remarked that
from what she had said to him on his last visit he had expected to find
quite a little party here.

"I am sorry," said the old lady, "that Junius is away, for he would be
very glad to see you, and it never came into my mind to mention to you
that he was obliged to be in Washington at this time. And, as for the
party, I thought afterwards that it would be a great deal cosier just to
have a few persons here."

"Oh, yes," said Lawrence, "most certainly, a great deal cosier."

Mrs Keswick ate supper with her guests, and behaved very well. During
the evening she sustained the main part of the conversation, giving the
company a great many anecdotes and reminiscences of old times and old
families, relating them in an odd and peculiar way that was very
interesting, especially to Croft, to whom the subject matter was quite
new. But, although her three companions listened to the old lady with
deferential attention, interspersed with appropriate observations, each
one made her the object of severe mental scrutiny, and endeavored to
discover the present object of her scheming old mind. Roberta was quite
sure that her invitation and that of Mr Croft was a piece of artful
management on the part of the old lady, and imagined, though she was not
quite sure about it, that it was intended as a bit of match-making. To
get her married to somebody else, would be, of course, the best possible
method of preventing her marrying Junius; and this, she had reason to
believe, was the prime object of old Mrs Keswick's existence. But why
should Mr Croft be chosen as the man with whom she was to be thrown. She
had learned that the old la