ould certainly be a good
thing. Embryo husbands with incomes do occasionally fall in love with
pretty girls. But how can any pretty girl be fallen in love with
unless some one be permitted to see her? At Kingsbury Crescent there
was not a man to be seen from one end of the year to another. It
occurred to him now, for the first time, that Ayala by her present
life was shut out from any chance of marriage. It was manifestly true
that he had no right to seclude her in that fashion. At last he made
a promise, rashly, as he felt at the very moment of making it, that
he would ask his wife to allow Ayala to go to Stalham. Lady Albury of
course accepted this as an undertaking that Ayala should come, and
went away triumphant.

Mr. Dosett walked home across the parks with a troubled mind,
thinking much of all that had passed between him and the lady of
fashion. It was with great difficulty that he could quite make up his
mind which was right,--the lady of fashion or his wife. If Ayala was
to live always as they lived at Kingsbury Crescent, if it should in
process of time be her fate to marry some man in the same class as
themselves, if continued care as to small pecuniary needs was to be
her future lot, then certainly her comfort would only be disturbed by
such a visit as that now proposed. And was it not probable that such
would be the destiny in store for her? Mr. Dosett knew the world
well enough to be aware that all pretty girls such as Ayala cannot
find rich husbands merely by exhibiting their prettiness. Kingsbury
Crescent, unalloyed by the dangers of Stalham, would certainly be the
most secure. But then he had been told that Ayala now had special
chances offered to her, and that he had no right to rob her of those
chances. He felt this the more strongly, because she was not his
daughter,--only his niece. With a daughter he and his wife might have
used their own judgment without check. But now he had been told that
he had no right to rob Ayala of her chances, and he felt that he had
not the right. By the time that he reached Kingsbury Crescent he had,
with many misgivings, decided in favour of Stalham.

It was now some weeks since the first invitation had been refused,
and during those weeks life had not been pleasant at the Crescent.
Ayala moped and pined as though some great misfortune had fallen upon
her. When she had first come to the Crescent she had borne herself
bravely, as a man bears a trouble when he is consciou