a momentary aspiration toward jocosity, "of another
matrimonial venture in our little circle."

"I was just telling the Baroness," Acton observed.

"Mr. Acton was apparently about to announce his own engagement," said
Eugenia.

Mr. Wentworth's jocosity increased. "It is not exactly that; but it
is in the family. Clifford, hearing this morning that Mr. Brand had
expressed a desire to tie the nuptial knot for his sister, took it into
his head to arrange that, while his hand was in, our good friend should
perform a like ceremony for himself and Lizzie Acton."

The Baroness threw back her head and smiled at her uncle; then turning,
with an intenser radiance, to Robert Acton, "I am certainly very stupid
not to have thought of that," she said. Acton looked down at his
boots, as if he thought he had perhaps reached the limits of legitimate
experimentation, and for a moment Eugenia said nothing more. It had
been, in fact, a sharp knock, and she needed to recover herself. This
was done, however, promptly enough. "Where are the young people?" she
asked.

"They are spending the evening with my mother."

"Is not the thing very sudden?"

Acton looked up. "Extremely sudden. There had been a tacit
understanding; but within a day or two Clifford appears to have received
some mysterious impulse to precipitate the affair."

"The impulse," said the Baroness, "was the charms of your very pretty
sister."

"But my sister's charms were an old story; he had always known her."
Acton had begun to experiment again.

Here, however, it was evident the Baroness would not help him. "Ah, one
can't say! Clifford is very young; but he is a nice boy."

"He 's a likeable sort of boy, and he will be a rich man." This was
Acton's last experiment. Madame Munster turned away.

She made but a short visit and Felix took her home. In her little
drawing-room she went almost straight to the mirror over the
chimney-piece, and, with a candle uplifted, stood looking into it. "I
shall not wait for your marriage," she said to her brother. "To-morrow
my maid shall pack up."

"My dear sister," Felix exclaimed, "we are to be married immediately!
Mr. Brand is too uncomfortable."

But Eugenia, turning and still holding her candle aloft, only looked
about the little sitting-room at her gimcracks and curtains and
cushions. "My maid shall pack up," she repeated. "Bonte divine, what
rubbish! I feel like a strolling actress; these are my 'properties.'"

"Is