and I will. It is not thanks, nor love, nor
even gratitude, that I look for. I am bound to do the best I can by
her because she is your niece, and because she has no other real
friends. I knew what would come of it when she went to that house in
Brook Street. I was soft then and gave way. The girl has moped about
like a miserable creature ever since. If I am not to have my way
now I will have done with her altogether." Having heard this very
powerful speech, Uncle Reginald was obliged to give way, and it was
settled that after dinner he should convey to Ayala the decision to
which they had come.

Ayala, as she sat at the dinner-table, was all expectation, but she
asked no question. She asked no question after dinner, while her
uncle slowly, solemnly, and sadly sipped his one beaker of cold
gin-and-water. He sipped it very slowly, no doubt because he was
anxious to postpone the evil moment in which he must communicate her
fate to his niece. But at last the melancholy glass was drained, and
then, according to the custom of the family, Mrs. Dosett led the way
up into the drawing-room, followed by Ayala and her husband. He, when
he was on the stairs, and when the eyes of his wife were not upon
him, tremulously put out his hand and laid it on Ayala's shoulder,
as though to embrace her. The poor girl knew well that mark of
affection. There would have been no need for such embracing had the
offered joys of Stalham been in store for her. The tears were already
in her eyes when she seated herself in the drawing-room, as far
removed as possible from the arm-chair which was occupied by her
aunt.

Then her uncle pronounced his judgment in a vacillating voice,--with
a vacillation which was ineffectual of any good to Ayala. "Ayala,"
he said, "your aunt and I have been talking over this invitation to
Stalham, and we are of opinion, my dear, that you had better not
accept it."

"Why not, Uncle Reginald?"

"There would be expense."

"I can pay for my own ticket."

"There would be many expenses, which I need not explain to you more
fully. The truth is, my dear, that poor people cannot afford to live
with rich people, and had better not attempt it."

"I don't want to live with them."

"Visiting them is living with them for a time. I am sorry, Ayala,
that we are not able to put you in a position in which you might
enjoy more of the pleasures incidental to your age; but you must take
the things as they are. Looking at the matter