ic.

The Canon drove to Lescombe the next day under pretext of inquiring
after Lady Delmar, and then almost forgot to do so, after he had
ascertained that she was a prisoner to her dressing-room, and that Sir
John was out shooting. The result of his interview filled him with
astonishment. Lady Ronnisglen having had a large proportion of sons to
put out in life on very small means had learnt not to be fastidious,
and held that the gentleman might ennoble the vocation instead of the
vocation debasing the gentleman. Moreover, in her secret soul she felt
that her daughter Janet's manoeuvres were far more truly degrading than
any form of honest labour; and it was very sore to her to have no power
of preventing them, ridicule, protest, or discouragement being all
alike treated as the dear mother's old-world unpractical romance. It
galled her likewise that she could perceive the determination that
Annaple Ruthven should be disposed of before Muriel Delmar came on the
scene; and the retiring to ever so small a home of their own had been
discussed between mother and daughter, and only put aside because of
the pain it would give their honest-hearted host and their hostess, who
really loved them.

Thus she did her best to persuade her old friend that there were few
openings for a man of his son's age, and that if the Micklethwayte
business were all that Mark imagined, it was not beneath the attention
even of a well-born gentleman in these modern days, and would involve
less delay than any other plan, except emigration, which was equally
dreaded by each parent. Delay there must be, not only in order to
ascertain the facts respecting the firm, but to prove whether Mark had
any aptitude for the business before involving any capital in it.
However, every other alternative would involve much longer and more
doubtful waiting. And altogether the Canon felt that if a person of
Lady Ronnisglen's rank did not object, he had scarcely a right to do
so. However, both alike reserved consent until full inquiry should
have been made.

The Canon wrote to Lord Kirkaldy, and in the meantime wanted to gather
what information he could from his sister-in-law; but he found her
absolutely engrossed as her husband's nurse, and scarcely permitted to
snatch a meal outside the darkened room. He groaned and grumbled at
his brother's selfishness, and declared that her health would be
damaged, while his shrewder lady declared that nothing would be so