Switzerland. On the day
before their departure Ingram dined with them--on his own invitation.
He had got into a habit of letting them know when it would suit him to
devote an evening to their instruction; and it was difficult indeed to
say which of the two ladies submitted the more readily and meekly
to the dictatorial enunciation of his opinions. Mrs. Kavanagh, it is
true, sometimes dissented in so far as a smile indicated dissent, but
her daughter scarcely reserved to herself so much liberty. Mr. Ingram
had taken her in hand, and expected of her the obedience and respect
due to his superior age.

And yet, somehow or other, he occasionally found himself indirectly
soliciting the advice of this gentle, clear-eyed and clear-headed
young person, more especially as regarded the difficulties surrounding
Sheila; and sometimes a chance remark of hers, uttered in a timid
or careless or even mocking fashion, would astonish him by the rapid
light it threw on these dark troubles. On this evening--the last
evening they were spending in London--it was his own affairs which he
proposed to mention to Mrs. Lorraine, and he had no more hesitation in
doing so than if she had been his oldest friend. He wanted to ask her
what he should do about the money that Mrs. Lavender had left him; and
he intended to be a good deal more frank with Mrs. Lorraine than with
any of the others to whom he had spoken about the matter. For he was
well aware that Mrs. Lavender had at first resolved that he should
have at least a considerable portion of her wealth, or why should she
have asked him how he would like to be a rich man?

"I do not think," said Mrs. Lorraine quietly, "that there is any use
in your asking me what you should do, for I know what you will do,
whether it accords with any one's opinion or no. And yet you would
find a great advantage in having money."

"Oh, I know that," he said readily. "I should like to be rich beyond
anything that ever happened in a drama; and I should take my chance of
all the evil influences that money is supposed to exert. Do you know,
I think you rich people are very unfairly treated."

"But we are not rich," said Mrs. Kavanagh, passing at the time.
"Cecilia and I find ourselves very poor sometimes."

"But I quite agree with Mr. Ingram, mamma," said Cecilia--as if any
one had had the courage to disagree with Mr. Ingram!--"rich people are
shamefully ill-treated. If you go to a theatre, now, you find that all