ere as a child. A child doesn't
notice."

"Some children don't," said Lady Mary, with that faint, wondering
smile which hid her pain from Peter, and would have revealed it so
clearly to John.

"It isn't that Sarah _minds_ this old house," said Peter; "she was
saying what a pretty room she could make of the drawing-room only the
other day."

Lady Mary felt an odd pang at her heart. She thought of the trouble
John had taken to choose the best of the water-colours for the
rose-tinted room--the room he had declared so bright and so
charming--of the pretty curtains and chintzes; and the valuable old
china she had collected from every part of the house for the cabinets.

"You see, she's got that sort of thing at her fingers' ends, Lady
Tintern being such a connoisseur," said the unconscious Peter. "But
she's so afraid of hurting your feelings--"

"Why should she be?" said Lady Mary, coldly, in spite of herself. "If
she does not like the drawing-room, she can easily alter it."

"That's what I say," said Peter, with a touch of his father's
pomposity. "Surely a bride has a right to look forward to arranging
her home as she chooses. And Sarah is mad about old French
furniture--Louis Seize, I think it is--but I know nothing about such
things. I think a man should leave the choice of furniture, and all
that, to his wife--especially when her taste happens to be as good as
Sarah's."

"I--I think so too, Peter," said Lady Mary.

Her thoughts wandered momentarily into the past; but his eager tones
recalled her attention.

"Then you won't mind, so far?" said Peter, anxiously.

"I--why should I mind?" said Lady Mary, starting. "I believe--I
have read--that old French furniture is all the rage now." Then she
bethought herself, and uttered a faint laugh. "But I'm afraid your
aunts might make it a little uncomfortable for her, if she--tried to
alter anything. I--go my own way now, and don't mind--but a young
bride--does not always like to be found fault with. She might find
that relations-in-law are sometimes--a little trying." Lady Mary felt,
as she spoke these words, that she was somehow opening a way for
herself as well as for Peter. She wondered, with a beating heart,
whether the moment had come in which she ought to tell him--

"That's just it," said Peter's voice, breaking in on her thoughts.
"That's just what Sarah means, and what I was trying to lead up to;
only I'm no diplomatist. But that's one of the greatest objec