ttle difficult."

"Oh, mamma," from Chatty again. "Theo is always kind."

"That does not make much difference, my dear. When a young man is
accustomed to be given in to, it is easy to be kind. But when he meets
for the first time one who will not give in, who will hold her own--I do
not blame her for that: she is in a different position from a young
girl."

"And how is it all to be settled?" asked Dick; "where are they to live?
how about the child?"

"All these questions make my heart sink. He is not in the least prepared
to meet them. Her name even; she will of course keep her name."

"That always seems a little absurd; that a woman should keep her own
name, as they do more or less everywhere but in England--yes; well, a
Frenchwoman says _nee_ So-and-so; an Italian does something still more
distinct than that, I am not quite clear how she does it. That's quite
reasonable I think: for why should she wipe out her own individuality
altogether when she marries? But to keep one husband's name when you are
married to another----"

"It is because of the charm of the title. I suppose when a woman has
been once called my lady, she objects to come down from those heights.
But I think if I were a man, I should not like it, and Theo will not
like it. At the same time there is her son, you know, to be considered.
I don't like complications in marriages. They bring enough trouble
without that."

"Trouble!" said Dick, in a tone of lively protest, which was a little
fictitious. And Chatty, though she did not say anything, gave her mother
a glance.

"Yes, trouble. It breaks as many ties as it makes. How much shall I see
of Theo, do you think, when this marriage takes place? and yet by nature
you would say I had some right to him. Oh, I do not complain. It is
the course of nature. And Minnie is gone; she is entering into all the
interests of the Thynnes, by this time: and a most bigoted Thynne she
will be, if there are any special opinions in the family. I don't know
them well enough to know. Fancy giving up one's child to become bigoted
to another family, whom one doesn't even know!"

"It seems a little hard, certainly. The ordinary view is that mothers
are happy when their daughters marry."

"Which is also true in its way: for the mother has a way of being older
than her daughter, Mr. Cavendish, and knows she cannot live for ever;
beside, marriage being the best thing for a woman, as most people think,
it should be the mo