was a valuable addition to the sum-total of wisdom; and
unabashed by the silence with which her comment was received, she
continued her critical survey of the drawing-room.

"Dear Mrs. Amherst--you know I can't help saying what I think--and I've
so often wondered why you don't do this room over. With these high
ceilings you could do something lovely in Louis Seize."

A faint pink rose to Mrs. Amherst's cheeks. "I don't think my son would
ever care to make any changes here," she said.

"Oh, I understand his feeling; but when he begins to entertain--and you
know poor Bessy always _hated_ this furniture."

Mrs. Amherst smiled slightly. "Perhaps if he marries again--" she said,
seizing at random on a pretext for changing the subject.

Mrs. Dressel dropped the hands with which she was absent-mindedly
assuring herself of the continuance of unbroken relations between her
hat and her hair.

"_Marries again?_ Why--you don't mean--? He doesn't think of it?"

"Not in the least--I spoke figuratively," her hostess rejoined with a
laugh.

"Oh, of course--I see. He really _couldn't_ marry, could he? I mean, it
would be so wrong to Cicely--under the circumstances."

Mrs. Amherst's black eye-brows gathered in a slight frown. She had
already noticed, on the part of the Hanaford clan, a disposition to
regard Amherst as imprisoned in the conditions of his trust, and
committed to the obligation of handing on unimpaired to Cicely the
fortune his wife's caprice had bestowed on him; and this open expression
of the family view was singularly displeasing to her.

"I had not thought of it in that light--but it's really of no
consequence how one looks at a thing that is not going to happen," she
said carelessly.

"No--naturally; I see you were only joking. He's so devoted to Cicely,
isn't he?" Mrs. Dressel rejoined, with her bright obtuseness.

A step on the threshold announced Amherst's approach.

"I'm afraid I must be off, mother--" he began, halting in the doorway
with the instinctive masculine recoil from the afternoon caller.

"Oh, Mr. Amherst, how d'you do? I suppose you're very busy about
tomorrow? I just flew in to find out if Justine was really coming," Mrs.
Dressel explained, a little fluttered by the effort of recalling what
she had been saying when he entered.

"I believe my mother expects the whole party," Amherst replied, shaking
hands with the false _bonhomie_ of the man entrapped.

"How delightful! And it's so n