'Then, if you have no other plans, will you come and stay with me? We
are very quiet people, but you would have an opportunity of understanding
something of the kind of life.'

'Oh, how very kind of you! Nobody has been so good to me.'

'I think I can help you in some of the difficulties if you will let me,'
said Lady Kenton, quite convinced herself, and leaving a much happier
woman than she had found.

CHAPTER VIII
SECOND THOUGHTS

Though Miss Lang was shocked and indignant at Mrs. Morton's violence, she
was a wise woman, and felt that it would be better tact not to let such a
person depart without an attempt at pacification; so she did her best at
dignified soothing, and listened to a good deal of grumbling and
lamentation.

She contrived, however, to give the impression that as things stood, Mrs.
Morton would be far wiser to make no more resistance, but to consult
family peace by accepting Miss Marshall, who, she assured the visitor,
was a very kind and excellent person, not likely to influence Lord
Northmoor against his own family, except on great provocation.

Mrs. Morton actually yielded so far as to declare she had only spoken for
her dear brother-in-law's own good, and that since he was so infatuated,
she supposed, for her dear children's sake, she must endure it. Having
no desire to encounter him again, she went off by the next train, leaving
a message that she had had tea at Miss Lang's. She related at home to
her expectant daughter that Lord Northmoor had grown 'that high and
stuck-up, there was no speaking to him, and that there Miss Marshall was
an artful puss, as knew how to play her cards and get _in_ with the
quality.'

'I wish you had taken me, ma,' said Ida, 'I should have known what to say
to them.'

'I can't tell, child, you might only have made it worse. I see how it is
now, and we must be mum, or it may be the worse for us. He says he will
do what he can for us, but I know what that means. She will hold the
purse-strings, and make him meaner than he is already. He will never
know how to spend his fortune now he has got it! If your poor, dear pa
had only been alive now, he would never have let you be wronged.'

'But you gave it to them?' cried Ida.

'That I did! Only that lady, Lady Kenton, came in all stuck-up and
haughty, and cut me short, interfering as she had no business to, or I
would have brought Miss Mary to her marrow-bones. She hadn't a word to
say for he