Was it her son? There my heart stood still. With
only these near relatives in the world, she could have no grief which
did not relate to them or one of them at least.

"That night Mrs. Harrington came into my room, which opened upon the
same verandah with her own. She sat down on the sofa I occupied, and
began to talk to me of the ceremonies we had witnessed that day in the
cathedral. From that she glided gradually to other subjects, and dwelt
with a touch of sadness on the impolicy of early marriages. 'Her own,'
she said, 'had been a happy one, and she had married at sixteen; but as
a general thing she would advise no girl to undertake the cares of
domestic life under two or three and twenty. Particularly she would urge
this on me. With no mother to guide me in a choice, with money enough
to invite venal offers, I was, she thought, liable to peculiar
temptations. Besides,' she added sweetly, 'I have no daughter, and crave
a little of your life, for there will come a time when I shall be very
lonely.'

"I did not ask her when that time would be, or to whom it related, but
sat still, mute and cold. Was James Harrington engaged? I thought of
Mrs. Eaton's vague speeches regarding him, of her daughter's blushes and
Harrington's attention to her that day when I seemed utterly forgotten.
Was the kind lady preparing me? Had she seen my weakness! Heavens, how
my heart burned within me that I had so betrayed myself to this delicate
and high-minded woman, his mother too. Wounded pride made me courageous.
I would answer carelessly. She should never know that I had been mute
from want of speech. I arose from the sofa and drank a glass of water,
eagerly, for it seemed as if I must strangle. Then I said with a laugh,

"'You have something to tell me. Who is it that is likely to enter into
an early marriage! certainly it is not me.'

"'No indeed, I have little fear of that, but they have been forcing the
subject on me since I came home. Why cannot people allow a family to
rest in peace. I have never seen that he cared so much for the girl.'

"'Of whom are you speaking?' I asked.

"'Of my son and Miss Eaton.'

"'Is he then engaged to her?'

"'I do not understand it, but the General seems confident that it will
soon come about. The Eatons are enormously wealthy, you know, and Lucy
is an only child.'

"'But what of that? There is no need that Mr. Harrington should make a
mercenary marriage. Are not you rich, and is not he an o