n made her, and was
much too engaging a creature to be rebuffed; but, however merry and
protracted the teas in those scented rooms might be, Mr. Flaxman's step
on the stairs, and Mr. Flaxman's hand on the curtain over the door,
till now the feature in the entertainment most to be counted on, were,
generally speaking, conspicuously absent.

He and the Leyburns met, of course, for their list of common friends was
now considerable; but Agnes, reporting matters to Catherine, could
only say that each of these occasions left Rose more irritable and more
inclined to say biting things as to the foolish ways in which society
takes its pleasures.

Rose certainly was irritable, and at times, Agnes thought, depressed.
But as usual she was unapproachable about her own affairs, and the state
of her mind could only be somewhat dolefully gathered from the fact that
she was much less unwilling to go back to Burwood this summer than had
ever been known before.

Meanwhile, Mr. Flaxman left certain other people in no doubt as to his
intentions.

'My dear aunt,' he said calmly to Lady Charlotte, 'I mean to marry Miss
Leyburn if I can at any time persuade her to have me. So much you may
take as fixed, and it will be quite waste of breath on your part to
quote dukes to me. But the other factor in the problem is by no means
fixed. Miss Leyburn won't have me at present, and as for the future I
have most salutary qualms.'

'Hugh!' interrupted Lady Charlotte angrily, 'as if you hadn't had the
mothers of London at your feet for years!'

Lady Charlotte was in a most variable frame of mind; one day hoping
devoutly that the Langham affair might prove lasting enough in its
effects to tire Hugh out; the next, outraged that a silly girl should
waste a thought on such a creature, while Hugh was in her way; at one
time angry that an insignificant chit of a schoolmasters daughter should
apparently care so little to be the Duke of Sedberg's niece, and should
even dare to allow herself the luxury of snubbing a Flaxman; at another,
utterly skeptical as to any lasting obduracy on the chit's part,
The girl was clearly anxious not to fall too easily, but as to final
refusal--pshaw! And it made her mad that Hugh would hold himself so
cheap.

Meanwhile, Mr. Flaxman felt himself in no way called upon to answer that
remark of his aunt's we have recorded.

'I have qualms,' he repeated, 'but I mean to do all I know, and you and
Helen must help me.'

Lady