etended, mamma? Why should I care what passes in
the study? I was never welcome there. But, if you wish, I will pretend.
What important matter was settled in the study this morning?"

"Hesper, you provoke me with your affectation!"

Hesper's eyes began to flash. Otherwise she was still--silent--not a
feature moved. The eyes are more untamable than the tongue. When the
wild beast can not get out at the door, nothing can keep him from the
windows. The eyes flash when the will is yet lord even of the lines of
the mouth. Not a nerve of Hesper's quivered. Though a mere child in the
knowledge that concerned her own being, even the knowledge of what is
commonly called the heart, she was yet a mistress of the art of
self-defense, socially applied, and she would not now put herself at
the disadvantage of taking anything for granted, or accept the clearest
hint for a plain statement. She not merely continued silent, but looked
so utterly void of interest, or desire to speak, that her mother,
recognizing her own child, and quailing before the evil spirit she had
herself sent on to the generations to come, yielded and spoke out.

"Mr. Redmain has proposed for your hand, Hesper," she said, in a tone
as indifferent in her turn as if she were mentioning the appointment of
a new clergyman to the family living.

For one moment, and one only, the repose of Hesper's faultless upper
lip gave way; one writhing movement of scorn passed along its curves,
and left them for a moment straightened out--to return presently to a
grander bend than before. In a tone that emulated, and more than
equaled, the indifference of her mother's, she answered:

"And papa?"

"Has referred him to you, of course," replied Lady Margaret.

"Meaning it?"

"What else? Why not? Is he not a _bon parli?_"

"Then papa did not mean it?"

"I do not understand you," elaborated the mother, with a mingled yawn,
which she was far from attempting to suppress, seeing she simulated it.

"If Mr. Redmain is such a good match in papa's eyes," explained Hesper,
"why does papa refer him to me?"

"That you may accept him, of course."

"How much has the man promised to pay for me?"

"_Hesper!_"

"I beg your pardon, mamma. I thought you approved of calling things by
their right names!"

"No girl can do better than follow her mother's example," said Lady
Margaret, with vague sequence. "If _you_ do, Hesper, you will accept
Mr. Redmain."

Hesper fixed her eyes on her m