to say that nothing would induce me to take the
responsibility of trying to break off any marriage, either by the advice
of people in this sphere or in any other sphere. In this case I should
have had neither the authority nor the influence to make any such unwise
attempt.

Sunday came round in due course, and brought the bride's younger sister,
then a girl of twenty-four or twenty-five. We discussed the usual midday
Sunday dinner of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, Mrs Peters sitting at
the head of the table, I on her right hand, and Carrie Waverly next to
me.

Suddenly realising that my remarks to the latter were receiving very
scant attention, I looked up, and found the girl's black eyes fixed in a
basilisk stare upon our unfortunate hostess, whose own eyes were cast
down, but who appeared uneasy and troubled by the determined gaze of my
guest. At length the poor woman threw down her knife and fork, rose
hastily from the dining-table, and made her way eagerly to the sofa at
the other end of the room, where she lay down at full length, murmuring:
"_I can't stand it any longer!_"

Carrie Waverly was at length induced to come away to my sitting-room and
leave the poor woman in peace, which she did, asserting her complete
innocence, and assuring me she "_only wanted to see if she could make
Mrs Peters look up at her!_"

I explained to her that "sensitives" may be as much upset by this sort
of thing as another person would be by a blow on the back. She looked
incredulous, and then said cheerfully: "Well, if it is as bad as that,
don't you think you ought to go and see how she is?"

"Two for yourself and your own curiosity and one for her!" I thought;
but I took the hint, and found Mrs Peters still prostrate on the sofa,
but full of apologies for her sudden collapse:

"You must have thought me so very rude," etc., etc.

I reassured her on this point, and expressed regret that my visitor
should have upset her so much by looking so fixedly at her.

"It was not her fault," said Mrs Peters eagerly. "_It was the man
standing over her._ He had his hands upon her shoulders, and was trying
so hard to influence her, and she was resisting it all the time, and the
whole conflict of their wills was thrown upon _me_, and I could not
stand it at last--that was why I left the table," she gasped out.

"Could you describe the man at all?"

"Quite clearly," she said. "I shall never forget his face--I saw him so
distinctly." She