e, and
then it had been worth the careful mother's while to be prepared to
accept a daughter-in-law so dowered. We have seen how the question
of such ownership had enabled her to put forward the plea of poverty
which she had used on her son's behalf. But since that Frederic had
declared his intention of marrying the young woman in spite of his
poverty, and Clara seemed to be equally determined. "He has been fool
enough to speak the word, and she is determined to keep him to it,"
said Lady Aylmer to her daughter. Therefore the Askerton battery was
brought to bear,--not altogether unsuccessfully.

The three ladies were sitting together in the drawing-room, and had
been as mute as fishes for half an hour. In these sittings they were
generally very silent, speaking only in short little sentences. "Will
you drive with us to-day, Miss Amedroz?" "Not to-day, I think, Lady
Aylmer." "As you are reading, perhaps you won't mind our leaving
you?" "Pray do not put yourself to inconvenience for me, Miss
Aylmer." Such and such like was their conversation; but on a sudden,
after a full half-hour's positive silence, Lady Aylmer asked a
question altogether of another kind. "I think, Miss Amedroz, my son
wrote to you about a certain Mrs. Askerton?"

Clara put down her work and sat for a moment almost astonished.
It was not only that Lady Aylmer had asked so very disagreeable a
question, but that she had asked it with so peculiar a voice,--a
voice as it were a command, in a manner that was evidently intended
to be taken as serious, and with a look of authority in her eye, as
though she were resolved that this battery of hers should knock the
enemy absolutely in the dust! Belinda gave a little spring in her
chair, looked intently at her work, and went on stitching faster
than before. "Yes he did," said Clara, finding that an answer was
imperatively demanded from her.

"It was quite necessary that he should write. I believe it to be an
undoubted fact that Mrs. Askerton is,--is,--is,--not at all what she
ought to be."

"Which of us is what we ought to be?" said Clara.

"Miss Amedroz, on this subject I am not at all inclined to joke. Is
it not true that Mrs. Askerton--"

"You must excuse me, Lady Aylmer, but what I know of Mrs. Askerton,
I know altogether in confidence; so that I cannot speak to you of her
past life."

"But, Miss Amedroz, pray excuse me if I say that I must speak of
it. When I remember the position in which you do us