eved her to find that Lily Dale's future
husband was an intimate friend of her friend's, and it especially
grieved her to find that he was now going to that friend's house.
It was a grief to her, and she showed that it was. It also grieved
Crosbie to find that Lady Julia was to be a fellow guest with himself
at Courcy Castle; but he did not show it. He expressed nothing but
smiles and civil self-congratulation on the matter, pretending
that he would have much delight in again meeting Lady Julia; but,
in truth, he would have given much could he have invented any
manoeuvre by which her ladyship might have been kept at home.

"What a horrid old woman she is," said Lily, as they rode back down
the avenue. "I beg your pardon, Bernard; for, of course, she is your
aunt."

"Yes; she is my aunt; and though I am not very fond of her, I deny
that she is a horrid old woman. She never murdered anybody, or robbed
anybody, or stole away any other woman's lover."

"I should think not," said Lily.

"She says her prayers earnestly, I have no doubt," continued Bernard,
"and gives away money to the poor, and would sacrifice to-morrow any
desire of her own to her brother's wish. I acknowledge that she is
ugly, and pompous, and that, being a woman, she ought not to have
such a long black beard on her upper lip."

"I don't care a bit about her beard," said Lily. "But why did she
tell me to do my duty? I didn't go there to have a sermon preached to
me."

"And why did she talk about beauty being dangerous?" said Bell. "Of
course, we all knew what she meant."

"I didn't know at all what she meant," said Lily, "and I don't know
now."

"I think she's a charming woman, and I shall be especially civil to
her at Lady de Courcy's," said Crosbie.

And in this way, saying hard things of the poor old spinster whom
they had left, they made their way into Guestwick, and again
dismounted at Mrs Eames's door.

CHAPTER XIII

A Visit to Guestwick

As the party from Allington rode up the narrow High Street of
Guestwick, and across the market square towards the small,
respectable, but very dull row of new houses in which Mrs Eames
lived, the people of Guestwick were all aware that Miss Lily Dale was
escorted by her future husband. The opinion that she had been a very
fortunate girl was certainly general among the Guestwickians, though
it was not always expressed in open or generous terms. "It was a
great match for her," some said, but s