and she still did not
want to marry him."

Lady Nottingham considered this for a moment in silence, wondering
whether, as Daisy had not spoken to her aunt about Lord Lindfield, she
herself was under any tacit bond of secrecy. But, scrupulous though she
was, she could not see any cause for secrecy.

Jeannie interrupted her silence.

"Is there somebody else?" she said.

Again Lady Nottingham thought over it.

"I can't see why I shouldn't tell you," she said, "since half London
knows, and is waiting quite sympathetically and agreeably for him to
ask her. She consulted me about it only this afternoon, and I think
when he does--I don't say if, because I feel sure he will--I think
that when he does she will accept him. I advised her to, and I think
she agreed. His name----"

"Ah, but perhaps Daisy wants to tell me his name herself," interrupted
Jeannie again. "Perhaps she wants to keep it as a surprise for me.
Don't tell me his name, Alice. Tell me all about him, though not enough
to enable me to guess. And tell me about Daisy's feelings towards him.
Somehow I don't think a girl should need advice; she should know for
herself, don't you think?"

"Not always. Sometimes, of course, a girl is definitely, even
desperately, in love with a man before she marries--but, Jeannie, how
often it is the other way! She likes him, she thinks he will be kind
to her, she wants to be married, she has all the reasons for marrying
except that of being in love. And such marriages so often turn out so
well; some even turn out ideally. My own did. But in some
circumstances I think a girl is right to ask advice."

Jeannie smiled.

"I think yours is an admirably sensible view, dear," she said, "and I
confess freely that there is heaps to be said for it. But I am afraid
I am not sensible over a thing like love. I think sense ought to be
banished."

"So do the lower classes think," remarked Lady Nottingham, rather
acutely, "and the consequence is that the gravest problem that has
ever faced the nation has arisen."

"Oh, I take it, he is not one of the unemployed?" said Jeannie.

"He is, but the top end of them."

"Oh, go on, dear; tell me all about him," said Jeannie.

"Well, he is rich--I suppose you might say very rich--he has a title;
he has an old and honoured name."

"Oh, I want something more important than all that," said Jeannie. "The
old and honoured name is all very well, but is he continuing to make it
honoured? To be ho