"

"Oh, I shall enjoy it--my maid is unpacking," Mrs. Ansell gaily
affirmed; and Mr. Tredegar, shrugging his shoulders, said curtly: "In
that case I will ring for the time-table."

When he had withdrawn to consult it in the seclusion of the library, and
Mrs. Ansell, affecting a sudden desire for a second cup of tea, had
reseated herself to await the replenishment of the kettle, Mr. Langhope
exchanged his own chair for a place at her side.

"Now what on earth does this mean?" he asked, lighting a cigarette in
response to her slight nod of consent.

Mrs. Ansell's gaze lost itself in the depths of the empty tea-pot.

"A number of things--or any one of them," she said at length, extending
her arm toward the tea-caddy.

"For instance--?" he rejoined, following appreciatively the movements of
her long slim hands.

She raised her head and met his eyes. "For instance: it may mean--don't
resent the suggestion--that you and Mr. Tredegar were not quite
well-advised in persuading her not to see Mr. Amherst yesterday
evening."

Mr. Langhope uttered an exclamation of surprise.

"But, my dear Maria--in the name of reason...why, after the doctor's
visit--after his coming here last night, at Truscomb's request, to put
the actual facts before her--should she have gone over the whole
business again with this interfering young fellow? How, in fact, could
she have done so," he added, after vainly waiting for her reply,
"without putting a sort of slight on Truscomb, who is, after all, the
only person entitled to speak with authority?"

Mrs. Ansell received his outburst in silence, and the butler,
reappearing with the kettle and fresh toast, gave her the chance to
prolong her pause for a full minute. When the door had closed on him,
she said: "Judged by reason, your arguments are unanswerable; but when
it comes to a question of feeling----"

"Feeling? What kind of feeling? You don't mean to suggest anything so
preposterous as that Bessy----?"

She made a gesture of smiling protest. "I confess it is to be regretted
that his mother is a lady, and that he looks--you must have noticed
it?--so amazingly like the portraits of the young Schiller. But I only
meant that Bessy forms all her opinions emotionally; and that she must
have been very strongly affected by the scene Mr. Tredegar described to
us."

"Ah," Mr. Langhope interjected, replying first to her parenthesis, "how
a woman of your good sense stumbled on that idea of hunting