h a good deal
of confidence. Now, do consider that the circumstances are peculiar.
Suppose he were to recover his eyesight!"

"You mean he wouldn't be able to bear the shock of finding out what he'd
got to marry...." She was interrupted by her mother exhibiting
consciousness of the presence of Lutwyche, whose exit was overdue. A
very trustworthy young woman, no doubt; but a line had to be drawn.
"What are you fiddling with my letters for, Lutwyche?" said Gwen. "Do
please get done and go!"

"Yes, my lady." Discreet retirement of Miss Lutwyche.

"She didn't hear, mamma. You needn't fuss."

"I was not fussing, my dear, but it's as well to.... Yes, go on with
what you were saying." Because Lutwyche, being extinct, might be
forgotten.

Gwen was looking round at the mirror. If Helen of Troy had seen herself
in a mirror, all else being alike, what would her verdict have been?
Gwen seemed fairly satisfied. "You meant Adrian might be disgusted?"
said she.

The mother could not resist the pleasure of a satisfied glance at her
daughter's reflection, which was not looking at _her_. "I meant nothing
of the sort," she said. "But your father agreed with me--indeed, I am
repeating his own words--that Mr. Torrens may have a false impression,
having only really seen you once, under very peculiar circumstances. It
is only human nature, and one has to make allowance for human nature.
Now all that I am saying, and all that your father is saying, is that
the circumstances _are_ peculiar. Without some sort of reasonable
guarantee that Mr. Torrens cannot recover his eyesight, I do contend
that it would be in the highest degree rash to take an irrevocable step,
and to condemn one--perhaps both, for I assure you I am thinking of Mr.
Torrens's welfare as well as your own--to a lifetime of repentance."

"Mamma dear, don't be a humbug! You are only putting in Adrian's welfare
for the sake of appearances. Much better let it alone!"

"My dear, it is not the point. If you choose to think me inhumane, you
must do so. Only I must say this, that apart from the fact that I have
nothing whatever against Mr. Torrens personally--except his religious
views, which are lamentable--that his parents...."

"I thought you said you never knew his mother."

"No--perhaps not his mother." Her ladyship intensified the parenthetical
character of this lady by putting her into smaller type and omitting
punctuation:--"I can't say I ever really knew his mother an