ehalf. Sir John Ball had assumed very plainly a look of
vexation when the question was put to him.

"I promised Mr Slow that I would ask you," said the lawyer. "Mr Slow
is of course anxious for his client."

"It is my business and not Mr Slow's," said Sir John Ball, "and you
may tell him that I say so."

Then there had been a moment's silence, and Sir John had felt himself
to be wrong.

"Pray tell him also," said Sir John, "that I am very grateful to him
for his solicitude about my cousin, and that I fully appreciate his
admirable conduct both to her and me throughout all this affair. When
I have made up my mind what shall be done, I will let him know at
once."

As he walked down from his lawyer's chambers in Bedford Row to the
railway station he thought of all this, and thought also of those
words which Mrs Mackenzie had spoken to him in the bazaar. "You have
no right to scold him yet," she had said to Margaret. Of course he
had understood what they meant, and of course Margaret had understood
them also. And he had not been at all angry when they were spoken.
Margaret had been so prettily dressed, and had looked so fresh and
nice, that at that moment he had forgotten all his annoyances in his
admiration, and had listened to Mrs Mackenzie's cunning speech, not
without confusion, but without any immediate desire to contradict its
necessary inference. A moment or two afterwards the harpies had been
upon him, and then he had gone off in his anger. Poor Margaret had
been unable to distinguish between the effects produced by the speech
and by the harpies; but Mrs Mackenzie had been more clever, and had
consequently predicted her cousin's speedy promotion in the world's
rank.

Sir John, as he went home, made up his mind to one of two
alternatives. He would either marry his cousin or halve Jonathan
Ball's money with her. He wanted to marry her, and he wanted to keep
the money. He wanted to marry her especially since he had seen how
nice she looked in black-freckled muslin; but he wanted to marry
her in silence, without any clash of absurd trumpets, without
ridicule-moving leading articles, and fingers pointed at the
triumphant lion. He made up his mind to one of those alternatives,
and resolved that he would settle which on that very night. His
mind should be made up and told to his mother before he went to bed.
Nevertheless, when the girls and Jack were gone, and he was left
alone with Lady Ball, his mind had as yet