my life that is at stake, and I'm so young! I may have such a long
time to live. Some girls have a dozen fancies before they are twenty-
three, but I have never thought of anyone else. ... From the first time
that I met Geoffrey I knew that he was the one man for me. You have
been happily married yourself, mother! Could you bear to spoil our
happiness?"

Mrs Ramsden winced at the sound of that significant little pronoun,
which now, for the first time in twenty-three years, failed to include
herself. Now she was an outsider, for her child's heart and life alike
had passed from her keeping: It is a bitter moment for all mothers;
doubly bitter when, as to Mrs Ramsden, the supplanter seems unworthy of
his trust.

"Happiness is not everything, Elma! I hope,--I hope I am strong enough
to endure even to see you suffer for your ultimate good."

She mopped her eyes with her handkerchief, while Elma turned aside,
realising sadly that it was useless to prolong the discussion.
Presently Geoffrey and his mother would arrive and then they would all
consult together. Elma had not rehearsed her own share in the
conversation; the all-important decision was in the last issue to be
left to herself, and she had spoken the simple truth in saying that she
wished above all things to do what was right. Her life's training had
instilled the conviction that no happiness was possible at the cost of a
sacrifice of principle. If she could be once convinced that it was
wrong to marry Geoffrey Greville, she would give him up as unflinchingly
as any martyr of old walked to the stake, but she must be convinced on
the ground of principle alone! Pride, prejudice, convention, would pass
her by, leaving her unshaken in her determination to marry the man she
loved.

At four o'clock the great landau from the Manor drove up to the gate,
and from within the shrouded windows mother and daughter watched the
groom jump lightly from his seat, to shield the grey froth of Madame's
draperies as she stepped to the ground. To Mrs Ramsden the scene was
an eloquent illustration of the world, the flesh and the devil; the
world exemplified by the carriage with its handsome trappings, its
valuable horses, and liveried attendants; the flesh by Madame--a picture
of elegance in cloudy grey draperies, her silvery locks surmounted by a
flower-wreathed toque, her cheeks faintly pink beneath the old lace
veil--the devil!--it was a hard word to apply to the handsom