are engaged for the
polo match. You must make haste and finish dressing, for we must start
directly after luncheon."

"Do you mean that Mr. Sefton is going to drive us over to Staplehurst,
after all?" asked Bessie, feeling very much astonished at Richard's
change of plan; he had not even spoken on the subject at breakfast-time,
but he must have arranged it afterward.

"Richard!" rather contemptuously. "Richard is by this time lunching at
the Fordham Inn, with half a dozen stupid farmers. Have you forgotten
that he flatly refused to drive us at all? Oh, I have not forgotten his
lecture, I assure you, though it does not seem to have made much
impression on you. Well, why are you looking at me with such big eyes,
Bessie, as though you found it difficult to understand me?"

"Because I don't understand you Edna," replied Bessie frankly. "You know
both your mother and brother objected to Captain Grant's invitation; you
cannot surely intend to go in opposition to their wishes."

"Their wishes! I suppose you mean Richard's wish, for mamma never opened
her lips on the subject; she just listened to Richard's tirade."

"But she did not contradict him; and surely you must have seen from her
face that she agreed with every word." Bessie did not dare to add that
Mrs. Sefton had expressed her strong disapproval of Captain Grant to
her. "She was looking at you so anxiously all the time."

"Oh, that is only mamma's fussiness. Of course I know she does not want
me to go. I don't mean to pretend that I am not aware of that, but mamma
knows that I generally have my own way in this sort of thing, and she
did not actually forbid it."

"Oh, Edna! what can that matter when you know her real wishes?"

"My dear, don't preach; your words will not influence me in the least. I
told Richard, before mamma, that I should go, and I mean to carry out my
word. You are a free agent, Bessie; I cannot oblige you to go with me,
but as the Athertons are all engaged, I could not get one of them in
your place."

"But if I say I cannot go, what will you do then?" asked Bessie
anxiously.

"In that case I should go alone," returned Edna coldly; "but I should
think you were unkind to desert me."

"I should have to bear that," replied Bessie rather sadly; "it is not
what you would think of me, but what I ought to do. Oh, Edna, you are
placing me in a very difficult position. I do not know how to act, and
the whole thing distresses me so. Do give it up