l look very creditable by and by,
when she has more colour and not all this crape. Perhaps I shall get her
married by the end of the season; only you must learn better manners
first, Phoebe--not to rush out of the dining-room in this way. I don't
know what I shall do without my other glass of wine--when I am so low,
too!'

'A fine mistress of the house, indeed,' said Lady Acton. 'It is well
Mervyn's absurd notion is impossible.'

'What was that? To keep us all?' asked Phoebe, catching at the hope.

'Not Maria nor the governess. You need not flatter yourself,' said
Juliana; 'he said he wouldn't have them at any price; and as to keeping
house alone with a man of his character, even you may have sense to see
it couldn't be for a moment.'

'Did Robert consent to Maria's going to Hampstead?' asked Phoebe.

'Robert--what has he to do with it? He has no voice.'

'He said something about getting the three boarded with some clergyman's
widow,' said Augusta; 'buried in some hole, I suppose, to make them like
himself--go to church every day, and eat cold dinners on Sunday.'

'I should like to see Bertha doing that,' said Juliana, laughing.

But the agony of helplessness that had oppressed Phoebe was relieved.
She saw an outlet, and could form a resolution. Home might have to be
given up, but there was a means of fulfilling her mother's charge, and
saving Maria from the private idiot asylum; and for that object Phoebe
was ready to embrace perpetual seclusion with the dullest of widows. She
found her sisters discussing their favourite subject--Mervyn's misconduct
and extravagance--and she was able to sit apart, working, and thinking of
her line of action. Only two days! She must be prompt, and not wait for
privacy or for counsel. So when the gentlemen came in, and Mr. Crabbe
came towards her, she took him into the window, and asked him if any
choice were permitted her as to her residence.

'Certainly; so nearly of age as you are. But I naturally considered that
you would wish to be with Lady Bannerman, with all the advantages of
London society.'

'But she will not receive Maria. I promised that Maria should be my
charge. You have not consented to this Hampstead scheme?'

'Her ladyship is precipitate,' half whispered the lawyer. 'I certainly
would not, till I had seen the establishment, and judged for myself.'

'No, nor then,' said Phoebe. 'Come to-morrow, and see her. She is no
subject for _an establish