rmined voice. "I do not want to know
anything about her--she has done nothing but make mischief and cause
contention ever since I heard her name. I begin to agree with Miss
Polehampton--it was a most unsuitable friendship."

"It has been a disastrous friendship for Miss Colwyn, I fear. You must
excuse me if I say that it is hardly generous--after having been the
means of the loss of her first situation--to refuse to help her in
obtaining another."

"I think I am the best judge of that. If you mean to insinuate, Sir
Philip, that your proposal for Margaret's hand which we have talked over
before, hinges on her compliance with your wishes in this instance, you
had better withdraw it at once."

"You must be aware that I have no such meaning," said Sir Philip, in a
tone that showed him to be much wounded.

"I am glad--for your own sake--to hear it. Neither Mr. Adair nor myself
could permit Margaret to lower herself by going to explain her past
conduct to a second-rate Beaminster schoolmistress."

Sir Philip stood silent, downcast, his eyebrows contracting over his
eyes until--as Lady Caroline afterwards expressed it--he positively
scowled.

"You disagree with me, I presume?" she inquired, with some irony in her
tone.

"Yes, Lady Caroline, I do disagree with you. I thought that you--and
Margaret--would be more generous towards a fatherless girl."

"You must excuse me if I say that your interest in 'a fatherless girl'
is somewhat out of place, Sir Philip. You are a young man, and it is not
quite seemly for you to make such a point of befriending a little music
governess. I am sorry to have to speak so plainly, but I must say that I
do not think such interest befits a gentleman, and especially one who
has been asking us for our daughter."

"My love for Margaret," said Sir Philip, gravely, "cannot blind me to
other duties."

"There are duties in the world," rejoined Lady Caroline, "between which
we sometimes have to choose. It seems to me that you may have to choose
between your love for Margaret and your 'interest' in Janetta Colwyn."

"I hardly think," said her guest, "that I deserve this language, Lady
Caroline. However, since these are your opinions, I can but say that I
deeply regret them--and take my leave. If you or Miss Adair should wish
to recall me you have but to send me a word--a line: I shall be ready to
come. Your daughter knows my love for her. I am not yet disposed to give
up all hope of a recall."