wed her look. Kitty and Trevor had now stopped all music.
Trevor was talking in a low tone to the girl; Kitty's head was slightly
bent and she was pulling a white chrysanthemum to pieces.

"I wonder what he is saying to her?" thought Mrs. Aylmer. Then all of a
sudden she made up her mind. "I should like it," she said aloud; "I
should like it much."

Sir John started, and a slight accession of colour came into his ruddy
cheeks.

"What do you mean?" he said.

"Have you never thought of it? It is right for the young to marry. This
would be a match after my own heart. Would it please you?"

"It would, if it were God's will," said Sir John emphatically. He looked
again at the pair by the piano, and then across the long room to Colonel
Sharston. Colonel Sharston was absorbed in a game of chess with Bertha
Keys. He was noticing nothing but the intricacies of the game.

"All the same," added Sir John, "her father and I are in no hurry to see
Kitty settled in life. She is most precious to us both; we should
scarcely know ourselves without her."

"Oh, come now, I call that selfish," said Mrs. Aylmer; "a pretty girl
must find her true mate, and there is nothing so happy as happy married
life."

"Granted, granted," said Sir John.

"You and I, Sir John, are not so young as we used to be. It would be
nice for us to see those we love united: to feel that whatever storms
life may bring they will bear them together. But say nothing to Colonel
Sharston on the subject yet. I am glad to feel that when _my son_, as I
always called Maurice, proposes for _your daughter_, as you doubtless
think Kitty, there will be no objection on your part."

"None whatever, except that I shall be sorry to lose her. I have a great
admiration for Trevor; he is a man quite after my own heart."

Soon afterwards Sir John Wallis moved away.

Mrs. Aylmer, having sown the seed she desired to sow, was satisfied.
From time to time the old man watched the pretty, bright-eyed girl.
During the rest of the evening Trevor scarcely left her side; they had
much to talk over, much in common. Mrs. Aylmer was in the highest
spirits.

"This is exactly what I want," she said to herself; "but I can see, for
some extraordinary reason, that notwithstanding his attentions, Maurice
has not fallen in love with that remarkably sweet girl. Whom has he
given his heart to? If I thought for a single moment that Bertha was
playing that game, I should dismiss her with a month'