be alienated from him would be the
bitterest grief which life could bring.

Her grip tightened on the girl's hand.

"Elma!" she cried urgently. "I am Geoffrey's mother. He is yours now,
and will be swayed by you, but he has been mine for thirty-three years.
If I have taken part against you, it has been because I believed it was
best for him. I have lost, and you have won. You will be his wife, the
mistress of the Manor. I don't grudge you your success, but don't--
don't bear me a grudge! Don't turn my boy against me!"

"Mrs Greville!" gasped Elma, breathlessly. "Mrs Greville!" She
pulled her hand from Geoffrey's grasp, and rose swiftly to her feet.
"Oh, please don't think that I could be so mean! I want him to love you
more, not less. I want to be a _real_ daughter! You must not think
that I am going to drive you from your place. You must stay on at the
Manor, and let me learn from you. There is so much that I shall have to
learn. I shall be quite satisfied to be allowed to help!"

"Silly child!" said Madame, smiling. She lifted her delicate, ringed
hand and stroked the girl's cheeks with kindly patronage. "You don't
know what you are talking about, my dear, but I _do_--fortunately for us
all! Geoffrey's wife must have no divided rule. You need not trouble
your pretty head about me. Norton palls at times even to a Greville,
and I shall enjoy my liberty. I'll go out and spend a cold weather with
Carol; I'll have a cosy little flat in town, and do the theatres. I'll
enjoy myself gadding about, and come down upon you now and then when I
want a rest, but I'll never _live_ with you, my dear; be sure of that!"

"It's rather early to make plans, mater. Things will arrange
themselves. Elma and I will always try to make you happy," said
Geoffrey, bluntly.

He, too, had risen, and stood by his mother's side; flushed, triumphant,
a little shamefaced at the remembrance of his late emotion; but
transparently and most radiantly happy. "I'll do all in my power to be
a good son to you, and to Mrs Ramsden also if she will allow me!"

He was the first of the three to remember the existence of the little
woman in the background; the little woman who was sobbing into her
handkerchief, shedding bitter tears because, forsooth, her daughter had
secured the biggest match in the country-side, and was about to become a
Greville of Norton Manor!

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.

The parental summons arrived ten days af