gave a grunt of disapproval.

"I'll marry a vegetarian, and live on nuts," she declared gloomily.
"But I will try to do better, mummie dear, I will indeed, so don't you
worry your sweet head! I'll be as good as a little automatic machine,
and never forget nothing no more. When Eunice comes, I'll ask her to
say, `Lunch, lunch! Dinner, dinner!' to me every morning regularly at
nine o'clock, and then I can't forget. I like Eunice! She is such an
agreeable complement to myself. I can help her where she fails, and she
can do the same for me. You will see, mother dear, that Eunice will
exert a most beneficial influence over me! She is one of those gentle,
mousy people who have an immense influence when they choose to exert
it."

"She seems to have that. I've noticed it more than once," said Mrs
Saville drily, and her eyes wandered to a closely written sheet which
lay on the table by her side. It was Arthur's latest letter, and in it
his mother's watchful eyes had discovered an unprecedented number of
references to his chiefs daughter. "Miss Rollo did this; Miss Rollo did
that; Miss Rollo said one thing and planned another." Five separate
times had that name been connected with Arthur's own experiences. Mrs
Saville drew her delicate brows together and heaved a sigh. A mother's
unselfishness is never perhaps so hardly tried as when she feels her
ascendency threatened in the affections of an only son.

CHAPTER TWENTY.

Two days before Eunice was expected at Yew Hedge, Peg was summoned from
the garden to receive a mysterious visitor, and stared in bewilderment
to see Rosalind herself awaiting in the drawing-room. No one else was
present, and in the wery moment of entering Peggy realised that the news
which she had expected so long was an accomplished fact. There was
suppressed excitement in Rosalind's manner, an embarrassment in her
glance, which told their own tale; and the kiss of greeting had hardly
been exchanged before she was stammering out:

"Mariquita, I came--I wanted to tell you myself--I thought you ought to
know--"

"That you are engaged to Lord Everscourt!" said Peggy, with one last
pang for the memory of Arthur's loss, but keeping her hand still linked
in Rosalind's, in remembrance of her promise to that dear brother. "I
have been expecting it, Rosalind, and am not at all surprised. I told
you, you remember, that it was bound to happen. I congratulate you, and
wish you every happiness.