one could be long
insensible to his goodness of heart. Already, she could not "stand"
Lowther, for the reason that he hardly took his eyes from her face. As
for the women, she was soon conscious of the social gulf that, in
reality, lay between her and them; she was, also, aware that they were
inclined to patronise her, particularly Mrs Devitt and Miss Spraggs:
the high hopes with which she had commenced the day had already
suffered diminution.

"And what are your aims in life?" Miss Spraggs asked presently; she had
found the peas to be as succulent as she had wished.

"To earn my own living," replied Mavis, who had seen that it was she to
whom the agreeable rattle had spoken.

"But, surely, that doesn't satisfy the young women of today!" continued
Miss Spraggs.

"I fear it does me; but then I don't know any young women to be
influenced by," answered Mavis.

"I thought every young woman, nowadays, was thirsting with ambition,"
said Miss Spraggs.

"I suppose everyone, who isn't an idiot, has her preferences," remarked
Mavis.

"I don't mean that. I thought every girl was determined on living her
own life to the exclusion of everything else," continued Miss Spraggs.

"Really!" asked Mavis in some surprise, as she believed that it was
only the plain and unattractive women who were of that complexion of
thought.

"Despise marriage and all that," put in Lowther, his eyes on Mavis as
he tossed off a glass of wine.

"But I don't despise marriage," protested Mavis.

"Really!" said Mrs Devitt, whose sensibilities were a trifle shocked by
this remark.

"If two people are in love with each other, and can afford to marry, it
seems a particularly natural proceeding," said Mavis simply.

"One that you would welcome?" asked Miss Spraggs, as she raised her
thin eyebrows.

"One that someone else would welcome," put in Devitt gallantly.

But Mavis took no notice of this interruption, as she said:

"Of course. Nothing I should wish for more."

Miss Spraggs made two or three further efforts to take a rise out of
Mavis; in each case, such was the younger woman's naturalness and
self-possession, that it was the would--be persecutor who appeared at a
disadvantage.

After luncheon the womenfolk moved to the drawing room; when Victoria
presently went to sit with her invalid brother, Mrs Devitt assumed a
business-like manner as she requested Mavis to sit by her. The latter
knew that her fate was about to be decided. They