take Mrs. Green. "Of course I'm nobody,"
said the Marchioness. Mrs. Toff and all who knew the family were sure
that the Marchioness would, in truth, enjoy her temporary freedom from
her elder daughter's control.

Whatever might have been Lord George's suspicion, he said nothing about
it. It had not been by agreement with him that the ladies of the family
had abstained from calling on his wife. He had expressed himself in
very angry terms as to the Dean's misconduct in keeping her in
Brotherton, and in his wrath had said more than once that he would
never speak to the Dean again. He had not asked any one to go there;
but neither had he asked them not to do so. In certain of his moods he
was indignant with his sisters for their treatment of his wife; and
then again he would say to himself that it was impossible that they
should go into the Dean's house after what the Dean had done. Now, when
he heard that his eldest sister was going to the Close, he said not a
word.

On the day of her arrival Lady Sarah knocked at the deanery door alone.
Up to this moment she had never put her foot in the house. Before the
marriage she had known the Dean but slightly, and the visiting to be
done by the family very rarely fell to her share. The streets of
Brotherton were almost strange to her, so little was she given to leave
the sphere of her own duties. In the hall, at the door of his study,
she met the Dean. He was so surprised that he hardly knew how to greet
her. "I am come to call upon Mary," said Lady Sarah, very brusquely.

"Better late than never," said the Dean, with a smile.

"I hope so," said Lady Sarah, very solemnly. "I hope that I am not
doing that which ought not to be done. May I see her?"

"Of course you can see her. I dare say she will be delighted. Is your
carriage here?"

"I am staying with my sister. Shall I go upstairs?"

Mary was in the garden, and Lady Sarah was alone for a few minutes in
the drawing-room. Of course she thought that this time was spent in
conference by the father and daughter; but the Dean did not even see
his child. He was anxious enough himself that the quarrel should be
brought to an end, if only that end could be reached by some steps to
be taken first by the other side. Mary, as she entered the room, was
almost frightened, for Lady Sarah had certainly been the greatest of
the bugbears when she was living at Manor Cross, "I am come to
congratulate you," said Lady Sarah, putting her hand