ways capital."

"Nonsense, Violet; I mean the Duchess and her daughter."

Vixen yawned audibly.

"I'm glad you do not find the Duchess insupportably dreary," she said.
"Lady Mabel weighed me down like a nightmare."

"Oh Violet! when she behaved so sweetly--quite caressingly, I thought.
You really ought to cultivate her friendship. It would be so nice for
you to visit at Ashbourne. You would have such opportunities----"

"Of doing what, mamma? Heading polonaises and mazurkas in seven double
flats; or seeing orchids with names as long as a German compound
adjective."

"Opportunities of being seen and admired by young men of position,
Violet. Sooner or later the time must come for you to think of
marrying."

"That time will never come, mamma. I shall stay at home with you till
you are tired of me, and when you turn me out I will have a cottage in
the heart of the Forest--upon some wild ridge topped with a hat of
firs--and good old McCroke to take care of me; and I will spend my days
botanising and fern-hunting, riding and walking, and perhaps learn to
paint my favourite trees, and live as happily and as remote from
mankind as the herons in their nests at the top of the tall beeches on
Vinny Ridge."

"I am very glad there is no one present to hear you talk like that,
Violet," Mrs. Winstanley said gravely.

"Why, mamma?'

"Because anybody hearing you might suppose you were not quite right in
your mind."

The Duchess's visit put Mrs. Winstanley in good-humour with all the
world, but especially with Roderick Vawdrey. She sent him an invitation
to her next dinner, and when her husband seemed inclined to strike his
name out of her list, she defended her right of selection with a
courage that was almost heroic.

"I can't understand your motive for asking this fellow," the Captain
said, with a blacker look than his wife had ever before seen on his
countenance.

"Why should I not ask him, Conrad? I have known him ever since he was
at Eton, and the dear Squire was very fond of him."

"If you are going to choose your acquaintance in accordance with the
taste of your first husband, it will be rather a bad look out for your
second," said the Captain.

"What objection can you have to Roderick?"

"I can have, and I have, a very strong objection to him. But I am not
going to talk about it yet awhile."

"But, Conrad, if there is anything I ought to know----" began Mrs.
Winstanley, alarmed.

"When I think you oug