t all connected
with me has come to Cheltenham I always have asked them to dine, and
then I have Gubbins's man to come and wait at table,--as you know."

"Of all men in the world Mr Grey is the last to think about it."

"That should only make me the more careful. But I think it would
perhaps be more comfortable if he were to come in the evening."

"Much more comfortable, aunt."

"I suppose he will be here in the afternoon, before dinner, and we
had better wait at home for him. I dare say he'll want to see you
alone, and therefore I'll retire to my own rooms,"--looking over
the stables! Dear old lady. "But if you wish it, I will receive him
first--and then Martha,"--Martha was Alice's maid--"can fetch you
down."

This discussion as to the propriety or impropriety of giving her
lover a dinner had not been pleasant to Alice, but, nevertheless,
when it was over she felt grateful to Lady Macleod. There was an
attempt in the arrangement to make Mr Grey's visit as little painful
as possible; and though such a discussion at such a time might as
well have been avoided, the decision to which her ladyship had at
last come with reference both to the dinner and the management of
the visit was, no doubt, the right one.

Lady Macleod had been quite correct in all her anticipations. At
three o'clock Mr Grey was announced, and Lady Macleod, alone,
received him in her drawing-room. She had intended to give him a
great deal of good advice, to bid him still keep up his heart and as
it were hold up his head, to confess to him how very badly Alice was
behaving, and to express her entire concurrence with that theory of
bodily ailment as the cause and origin of her conduct. But she found
that Mr Grey was a man to whom she could not give much advice. It
was he who did the speaking at this conference, and not she. She
was overawed by him after the first three minutes. Indeed her first
glance at him had awed her. He was so handsome,--and then, in his
beauty, he had so quiet and almost saddened an air! Strange to say
that after she had seen him, Lady Macleod entertained for him an
infinitely higher admiration than before, and yet she was less
surprised than she had been at Alice's refusal of him. The conference
was very short; and Mr Grey had not been a quarter of an hour in the
house before Martha attended upon her mistress with her summons.

Alice was ready and came down instantly. She found Mr Grey standing
in the middle of the room wa