d. Charles received her overtures with the
same courteous demeanor which had been the chief sting of their former
warfare. He paid his creditors, no one knew how, for his father had left
nothing to him unentailed; and once out of money difficulties, he seemed
in no hurry to plunge into them again. If he had not as yet thoroughly
taken up the life of an English country gentleman, for want of that
necessary adjunct which Lady Mary was so anxious to supply, at least he
lived in England and in good society. In short, Lady Mary was fond of
telling her friends Charles had entirely reformed, hinting, at the same
time, that she had been the humble instrument, in the hands of an
all-wise Providence, which had turned him back into the way in which the
English aristocracy should walk, and from which he had deviated so long.
But one thing remained--to marry him. Every one said Charles _must_
marry. Lady Mary did not say it, but with her whole soul she meant it.
What she intended to do, she, as a rule, performed--occasionally at the
expense of those who were little able to afford it, but still the thing
was (always, of course, by the co-operation of Providence) done. Ralph
certainly had proved an exception to the rule. He had married Evelyn
against Lady Mary's will, and consequently without the blessing of
Providence. After that, of course, she had never expected there would be
a son, and with each year her anxiety to see Charles safely married had
increased. He had seemed so amenable that at first she could hardly
believe that the steed which she had led to waters of such divers merit
would refuse to drink from any of them. If rank had no charm for him,
which apparently it had not, she would try beauty. When beauty failed,
even beauty with money in its hand, Lady Mary hesitated, and then fell
back on goodness. But either the goodness was not good enough, or, as
Lady Mary feared, it was not sufficiently High Church to be really
genuine: even goodness failed. For three years she had strained every
nerve, and at the end of them she was no nearer the object in view than
when she began.

An inconvenient death of a sister, with whom she had long since
quarrelled about church matters (and who had now gone where her folly in
differing from Lady Mary would be fully, if painfully, brought home to
her), had prevented Lady Mary continuing her designs this year in
London. But if thwarted in one direction, she knew how to throw her
energies into