course you are a very
good match, and though I do not want to flatter you, you were one
of the belles of the season. Though some of the men you speak of
were by no means desirable--younger sons and barristers and that
sort of thing--still, there were two or three whom any girl might
have been pleased to see at her feet, and who, I am sure from what
I saw, only needed but little encouragement from you to be there. I
was a little vexed, dear, you see, that you did not give any of
them that encouragement; but I understand, of course, that the
novelty of your first season carried you away altogether; and that
you liked the dancing and the fetes and the opera for themselves,
and not because they brought you in contact with men of excellent
class. So far as I could see, it was a matter of indifference to
you whether the man was a peer with a splendid rent roll, or a
younger son without a farthing, so that he was a good dancer and a
pleasant companion; but of course after a season or two you will
grow wiser."

"I do hope not, mamma," Bertha said, indignantly. "I don't mean to
say that it might not be better to marry, as you say, a peer with a
good rent roll than a younger son without a penny, other things
being equal; that is to say, if one liked them equally; but I hope
that I shall never come to like anyone a bit more for being a
peer."

Lady Greendale smiled, indulgently.

"It is a natural sentiment, my dear, for a girl of your age and
inexperience; but in time you will come to see things in a
different light."

Then she changed the subject. "What is Frank going to do? It is
fortunate that we are going up to town next week."

"He is going up to town himself tomorrow, and I am sure that you
will never hear from him, or from anyone else, what has happened.
We shall meet in town as usual, and I am sure that he will be just
the same as he was before, and that I shall be a great deal more
uncomfortable than he will. It is a very silly affair altogether, I
think; and I would give anything if it had not happened."

Lady Greendale did not echo the sentiment. She liked Frank Mallett
immensely. He had always been a great favourite of hers, but since
she had guessed what Bertha herself had not dreamed of, she had
been uncomfortable. It threatened to disturb all the plans she had
formed, and she was well contented to learn that she had refused
him. Lady Greendale was a thoroughly kind-hearted woman, but she
could not forget