efore he gave his consent.

So armed, Lady Tringle had come up to Kingsbury Crescent, and was
now about to undertake a task, which she acknowledged to herself to
be difficult. She, in the first place, had had her choice and had
selected a niece. Then she had quarrelled with her own selection, and
had changed nieces. This had been done to accommodate her own fancy;
and now she wanted to change the nieces back again! She felt aware
that her request was unreasonable, and came, therefore, determined to
wrap it up in her blandest smiles.

When Ayala had left the room Mrs. Dosett sat mute in attention. She
was quite aware that something very much out of the ordinary way was
to be asked of her. In her ordinary way Lady Tringle never did smile
when she came to Kingsbury Crescent. She would be profuse in finery,
and would seem to throw off sparks of wealth at every word she spoke.
Now even her dress had been toned down to her humbler manner, and
there was no touch of her husband's purse in her gait. "Margaret,"
she said, "I have a proposition of great importance to make to you."
Mrs. Dosett opened her eyes wider and sat still mute. "That poor girl
is not,--is not,--is not doing perhaps the very best for herself here
at Kingsbury Crescent."

"Why is she not doing the best for herself?" asked Mrs. Dosett,
angrily.

"Do not for a moment suppose that I am finding fault either with you
or my brother."

"You'd be very wrong if you did."

"No doubt;--but I am not finding fault. I know how very generous you
have both been. Of course Sir Thomas is a rich man, and what he gives
to one of the girls comes to nothing. Of course it is different with
you. It is hard upon my brother to have any such burden put upon him;
and it is very good both in him and you to bear it."

"What is it you want us to do now, Emmeline?"

"Well;--I was going to explain. I do think it a great pity that Tom
and Ayala should not become man and wife. If ever any young man ever
did love a girl I believe that he loves her."

"I think he does."

"It is dreadful. I never saw anything like it. He is just for all the
world like those young men we read of who do all manner of horrible
things for love,--smothering themselves and their young women with
charcoal, or throwing them into the Regent's Canal. I am constantly
afraid of something happening. It was all because of Ayala that he
got into that terrible row at the police court,--and then we were
afraid he was