she was glad to accept an invitation to Brandon Beeches in order to
escape for a while from the admiral's daily sarcasms on the marriage
list in the "Times." The invitation was the more acceptable because Sir
Charles was no mushroom noble, and, in the schooldays which Gertrude now
remembered as the happiest of her life, she had acknowledged that Jane's
family and connections were more aristocratic than those of any other
student then at Alton, herself excepted. To Agatha, whose grandfather
had amassed wealth as a proprietor of gasworks (novelties in his time),
she had never offered her intimacy. Agatha had taken it by force, partly
moral, partly physical. But the gasworks were never forgotten, and when
Lady Brandon mentioned, as a piece of delightful news, that she had
found out their old school companion, and had asked her to join them,
Gertrude was not quite pleased. Yet, when they met, her eyes were the
only wet ones there, for she was the least happy of the three, and,
though she did not know it, her spirit was somewhat broken. Agatha, she
thought, had lost the bloom of girlhood, but was bolder, stronger,
and cleverer than before. Agatha had, in fact, summoned all her
self-possession to hide her shyness. She detected the emotion of
Gertrude, who at the last moment did not try to conceal it. It would
have been poured out freely in words, had Gertrude's social training
taught her to express her feelings as well as it had accustomed her to
dissemble them.

"Do you remember Miss Wilson?" said Jane, as the three drove from the
railway station to Brandon Beeches. "Do you remember Mrs. Miller and
her cat? Do you remember the Recording Angel? Do you remember how I fell
into the canal?"

These reminiscences lasted until they reached the house and went
together to Agatha's room. Here Jane, having some orders to give in
the household, had to leave them--reluctantly; for she was jealous
lest Gertrude should get the start of her in the renewal of Agatha's
affection. She even tried to take her rival away with her; but in vain.
Gertrude would not budge.

"What a beautiful house and splendid place!" said Agatha when Jane was
gone. "And what a nice fellow Sir Charles is! We used to laugh at Jane,
but she can afford to laugh at the luckiest of us now. I always said she
would blunder into the best of everything. Is it true that she married
in her first season?"

"Yes. And Sir Charles is a man of great culture. I cannot understan