dear, what you've told me is not exactly pleasant to
hear, but still, after all, I really can't see anything so very dreadful
in it. Most families have a skeleton of some sort, I suppose, and this
is ours, or will be when Vane and I are married. We must simply keep the
cupboard door shut as closely as possible. It's only what lots of other
people have to do."

"Well, my dear," said her mother, "I must say I'm very glad to see you
take it so reasonably. I'm afraid I could not have done so at your age,
but then girls are so different now, and, besides, you always had more
of your father's way of looking at things than mine. Then, I suppose,
Vane may come and see you. I think it was very nice of him not to come
until you had been told everything."

"May come!" said Enid. "I should think so. If he doesn't I shall be
distinctly offended. I shall expect him to come round and make his
explanations in person before long, and when he does we will have a few
minutes chat _a deux_--and I don't think I shall have very much
difficulty in convincing him of the error of his ways, or, at any rate,
of his opinions."

"What an extremely conceited speech to make, dear!" said her ladyship
mildly, and yet with a glance of motherly pride at the beauty which went
so far towards justifying it. "Well, perhaps you are right. Certainly,
if anyone can, you can, and I sincerely hope you will. It would be
dreadful if anything were to happen to break it off after all these
years."

The colour went out of Enid's cheeks in an instant, and she said in
quite an altered voice:

"Oh, for goodness sake, mamma, don't say anything about that! You know
how fond I am of Vane. I simply couldn't give him up, whatever sort of a
mother he had, and if he had a dozen half-sisters as disreputable as
this Miss Carol Vane--the very idea of her having the impudence to use
his name! No, I shan't think of that--I couldn't. If Vane did that it
would just break my heart--it really would. It would be like taking half
my life away, and it would simply kill me. I couldn't bear it."

She honestly meant what she said, not knowing that she said it in utter
ignorance of the self that said it.

It was in Enid's mind, as it also was in her mother's, to send a note
round to Warwick Gardens to ask both Vane and his father to come round
to an informal dinner, and to discuss the matter there and then; but
neither of them gave utterance to the thought. Lady Raleigh, knowing her
d