ody accuse me of doing them an injury?" Margaret asked.

"Well, my dear, if I were to say that I accused you, perhaps you
would misunderstand me. I hope--I thoroughly expect, that before I
leave you, I may be able to say that I do not accuse you. If you
will only listen to me patiently for a few minutes, Margaret--which
I couldn't get you to do, you know, before you went away from the
Cedars in that very extraordinary manner--I think I can explain to
you something which--" Here Lady Ball became embarrassed, and paused;
but Margaret gave her no assistance, and therefore she began a new
sentence. "In point of fact, I want you to listen to what I say, and
then, I think--I do think--you will do as we would have you."

Whom did she include in that word "we"? Margaret had still sufficient
vitality not to let the word pass by unquestioned. "You mean yourself
and John?" said she.

"I mean the family," said Lady Ball rather sharply. "I mean the
whole family, including those dear girls to whom I have been in the
position of a mother since my son's wife died. It is in the name of
the Ball family that I now speak, and surely I have a right."

Margaret thought that Lady Ball had no such right, but she would not
say so at that moment.

"Well, Margaret, to come to the point at once, the fact is this. You
must renounce any idea that you may still have of becoming my son's
wife." Then she paused.

"Has John sent you here to say this?" demanded Margaret.

"I don't wish you to ask any such question as that. If you had any
real regard for him I don't think you would ask it. Consider his
difficulties, and consider the position of those poor children! If he
were your brother, would you advise him, at his age, to marry a woman
without a farthing, and also to incur the certain disgrace which
would attach to his name after--after all that has been said about
it in this newspaper?"--then, Lady Ball put her hand upon her
pocket--"in this newspaper, and in others?"

This was more than Margaret could bear. "There would be no disgrace,"
said she, jumping to her feet.

"Margaret, if you put yourself into a passion, how can you understand
reason? You ought to know, yourself, by the very fact of your being
in a passion, that you are wrong. Would there be no disgrace, after
all that has come out about Mr Maguire?"

"No, none--none!" almost shouted this modern Griselda. "There could
be no disgrace. I won't admit it. As for his marrying me, I