,
Louis Lewis, Belmont's head representative in Europe. Louis Lewis, over
champagne, asked Harry if he knew a Millicent Stanway of Bursley. The
effect of the conversation was that Harry came home and astounded Milly
by telling her what Louis Lewis had authorised him to say. There were
conferences between Leonora and Milly and Mr. Cecil Corfe, a journey to
Manchester, hesitations, excitations, thrills, and in the end an
arrangement. Millicent was to go to London to be finally appraised, and
probably to sign a contract for a sixteen-weeks provincial tour at three
pounds a week.

* * * * *

Leonora's prevailing mood was the serenity of high resolve and of
resignation. She had renounced the chance of ecstasy. She was sad, but
she was not unhappy. The melancholy which filled the secret places of
her soul was sweet and radiant, and she had proved the ancient truth
that he who gives up all, finds all. Still in rich possession of beauty
and health, she nevertheless looked forward to nothing but old age--an
old age of solitude and sufferance. Hannah and Meshach were gone; John
was gone; and she alone seemed to be left of the elder generations. In
four days Ethel was to be married. Already for more than three months
Rose had been in London, and in a fortnight Leonora was to take
Millicent there. And when Ethel was married and perhaps a mother, and
Rose versed and absorbed in the art and craft of obstetrics, and the
name of Millicent familiar in the mouths of clubmen, what was Leonora to
do then? She could not control her daughters; she could scarcely guide
them. Ethel knew only one law, Fred's wish; and Rose had too much
intellect, and Millicent too little heart, to submit to her. Since
John's death the house had been the abode of peace and amiability, but
it had also been Liberty Hall. If sometimes Leonora regretted that she
could not more dominantly impress herself upon her children, she never
doubted that on the whole the new republic was preferable to the old
tyranny. What then had she to do? She had to watch over her girls, and
especially over Rose and Milly. And as she sat in the garden with Bran
at her feet, in the solitude which foreshadowed the more poignant
solitude to come, she said to herself with passionate maternity: 'I
shall watch over them. If anything occurs I shall always be ready.' And
this blissful and transforming thought, this vehement purpose, allayed
somewhat the misgivings