that
you are meditating a refusal. But I don't mean to accept it. It is
much better that you should be with us while all this is going on,
than that you should be living here alone. And there is no one with
whom you could live during this time so properly, as with those who
are your nearest relatives."

"But, Mrs Mackenzie--"

"I suppose you are thinking now of another cousin, but it's not at
all proper that you should go to his house;--not as yet, you know.
And you need not suppose that he'll object because of what I said
about Lady Ball and myself. The Capulets and the Montagues don't
intend to keep it up for ever; and, though we have never visited Lady
Ball, my husband and the present Sir John know each other very well."

Mrs Mackenzie was not on that occasion able to persuade Margaret to
come at once to Cavendish Square, and neither was Margaret able to
give a final refusal. She did not intend to go, but she could not
bring herself to speak a positive answer in such a way as to have
much weight with Mrs Mackenzie. That lady left her at last, saying
that she would send her husband, and promising Margaret that she
would herself come in ten days to fetch her.

"Oh no," said Margaret; "it will be very good-natured of you to come,
but not for that."

"But I shall come, and shall come for that," said Mrs Mackenzie;
and at the end of the ten days she did come, and she did carry her
husband's cousin back with her to Cavendish Square.

In the meantime Walter Mackenzie had called in Arundel Street,
and had seen Margaret. But there had been given to her advice by
a counsellor whom she was more inclined to obey than any of the
Mackenzies. John Ball had written to her, saying that he had heard of
the proposition, and recommending her to accept the invitation given
to her.

"Till all this trouble about the property is settled," said he, "it
will be much better that you should be with your cousins than living
alone in Mrs Buggins' lodgings."

After receiving this Margaret held out no longer but was carried off
by the handsome lady in the grand carriage, very much to the delight
of Mrs Buggins.

Mrs Buggins' respect for Miss Mackenzie had returned altogether
since she had heard of the invitation to Cavendish Square, and she
apologised, almost without ceasing, for the liberty she had taken in
suggesting that Margaret should drink tea with her husband.

"And indeed, Miss, I shouldn't have proposed such a thing, were it