er freedom to go hither and thither and think as she chose
renewed itself. She tried to plan some way of making her declaration so
that she would not again be overwhelmed by a torrent of response. Should
she speak to him at the end of dinner? Should she speak to him while
Snagsby was in the room? But he might behave badly even with Snagsby in
the room and she could not bear to think of him behaving badly to her in
the presence of Snagsby. She glanced at him over the genuine old silver
bowl of roses in the middle of the table--all the roses were good _new_
sorts--and tried to estimate how he might behave under various methods
of declaration.

The dinner followed its appointed ritual to the dessert. Came the wine
and Snagsby placed the cigars and a little silver lamp beside his
master.

She rose slowly with a speech upon her lips. Sir Isaac remained seated
looking up at her with a mitigated fury in his little red-brown eyes.

The speech receded from her lips again.

"I think," she said after a strained pause, "I will go and see how
mother is now."

"She's only shamming," said Sir Isaac belatedly to her back as she went
out of the room.

She found her mother in a wrap before her fire and made her dutiful
enquiries.

"It's only quite a _slight_ headache," Mrs. Sawbridge confessed.
"But Isaac was so upset about Georgina and about"--she
flinched--"about--everything, that I thought it better to be out of
the way."

"What exactly has Georgina done?"

"It's in the paper, dear. On the table there."

Ellen studied the _Times_.

"Georgina got them the tickets," Mrs. Sawbridge explained. "I wish she
hadn't. It was so--so unnecessary of her."

There was a little pause as Lady Harman read. She put down the paper and
asked her mother if she could do anything for her.

"I--I suppose it's all Right, dear, now?" Mrs. Sawbridge asked.

"Quite," said her daughter. "You're sure I can do nothing for you,
mummy?"

"I'm kept so in the dark about things."

"It's quite all right now, mummy."

"He went on--dreadfully."

"It was annoying--of Georgina."

"It makes my position so difficult. I do wish he wouldn't want to speak
to me--about all these things.... Georgina treats me like a Perfect
Nonentity and then he comes----It's so inconsiderate. Starting Disputes.
Do you know, dear, I really think--if I were to go for a little time to
Bournemouth----?"

Her daughter seemed to find something attractive in the idea. She came