another. The first words she uttered indicated what that
direction was.

Evelyn's little remark about the dog-cart, which had gone to meet
Charles, had so long remained without any response that she was about to
coin another of the same stamp, when Lady Mary suddenly said, with a
decision that was intended to carry conviction to the heart of her
companion:

"It is an exceedingly suitable thing."

Evelyn evidently understood what it was that was so suitable, but she
made no reply.

"A few years ago," continued Lady Mary, "I should have looked higher. I
should have thought Charles might have done better, but--"

"He never could do better than--than--" said Evelyn, with a little mild
flutter. "There is no one in the world more--"

"Yes, yes, my dear--of course we all know that," returned the elder
lady. "She is much too good for him, and all the rest of it. A few years
ago, I was saying, I might not have regarded it quite in the light I do
now. Charles, with his distinguished appearance and his position, might
have married anybody. But time passes, and I am becoming seriously
anxious about him; I am, indeed. He is eight-and-thirty. In two years he
will be forty; and at forty you never know what a man may not do. It is
a critical age, even when they are married. Until he is forty, a man may
be led under Providence into forming a connection with a woman of
suitable age and family. After that age he will never look at any girl
out of her teens, and either perpetrates a folly or does not marry at
all. If the Danvers family is not to become extinct, or to be dragged
down by a _mesalliance_, measures must be taken at once."

Evelyn winced at the allusion to the extinction of the Danvers family,
of which Charles and Ralph were the only representatives. She felt
keenly having failed to give Ralph a son, and the sudden smart of the
old hurt added a touch of sharpness to her usually gentle voice as she
said, "I cannot see what _has_ been left undone."

"No, my dear," said Lady Mary, more suavely, "you have fallen in with my
views most sensibly. I only hope Ralph--"

"Ralph knows nothing about it."

"Quite right. It is very much better he should not. Men never can be
made to look at things in their proper light. They have no power of
seeing an inch in front of them. Even Charles, who is less dense than
most men, has never been allowed to form an idea of the plans which from
time to time I have made for him. Nothing sets