regret
that he could not make the same uncivil request. Not that he wished
to turn his wife absolutely out of his house; but he would have been
very glad to have had the power of dismissing her summarily from his
own room. This, however, was at present impossible; so he was obliged
to make some mild reply.

"You must have mistaken him, my dear. He could not have intended to
say that."

"Oh! of course, Mr Gresham. It is all a mistake, of course. It will
be a mistake, only a mistake when you find your son married to Mary
Thorne."

"Well, my dear, I cannot undertake to quarrel with Dr Thorne." This
was true; for the squire could hardly have quarrelled with Dr Thorne,
even had he wished it.

"Then I think it right to tell you that I shall. And, Mr Gresham, I
did not expect much co-operation from you; but I did think that you
would have shown some little anger when you heard that I had been so
ill-treated. I shall, however, know how to take care of myself; and
I shall continue to do the best I can to protect Frank from these
wicked intrigues."

So saying, her ladyship arose and left the room, having succeeded in
destroying the comfort of all our Greshamsbury friends. It was very
well for the squire to declare that he would not quarrel with Dr
Thorne, and of course he did not do so. But he, himself, had no wish
whatever that his son should marry Mary Thorne; and as a falling drop
will hollow a stone, so did the continual harping of his wife on the
subject give rise to some amount of suspicion in his own mind. Then
as to Beatrice, though she had made no promise that she would not
again visit Mary, she was by no means prepared to set her mother's
authority altogether at defiance; and she also was sufficiently
uncomfortable.

Dr Thorne said nothing of the matter to his niece, and she,
therefore, would have been absolutely bewildered by Beatrice's
absence, had she not received some tidings of what had taken place at
Greshamsbury through Patience Oriel. Beatrice and Patience discussed
the matter fully, and it was agreed between them that it would be
better that Mary should know what sterner orders respecting her
had gone forth from the tyrant at Greshamsbury, and that she might
understand that Beatrice's absence was compulsory. Patience was thus
placed in this position, that on one day she walked and talked with
Beatrice, and on the next with Mary; and so matters went on for a
while at Greshamsbury--not very pleasantly.