it impossible that the girl
should marry him,--if she chose to do so.

At first she thought that she would not answer the letter at all. What
was it to her? Let them fight their own lovers' battles out after
their own childish fashion. If the man meant at last to be honest,
there could be no doubt, Mrs Hurtle thought, that the girl would go to
him. It would require no interference of hers. But after a while she
thought that she might as well see this English chit who had
superseded herself in the affections of the Englishman she had
condescended to love. And if it were the case that all revenge was to
be abandoned, that no punishment was to be exacted in return for all
the injury that had been done, why should she not say a kind word so
as to smooth away the existing difficulties? Wild cat as she was,
kindness was more congenial to her nature than cruelty. So she wrote
to Hetta making an appointment.

DEAR MISS CARBURY

If you could make it convenient to yourself to call here either
Thursday or Friday at any hour between two and four, I shall be very
happy to see you.

Yours sincerely,

WINIFRED HURTLE.

CHAPTER XCI - THE RIVALS

During these days the intercourse between Lady Carbury and her
daughter was constrained and far from pleasant. Hetta, thinking that
she was ill-used, kept herself aloof, and would not speak to her
mother of herself or of her troubles. Lady Carbury watching her, but
not daring to say much, was at last almost frightened at her girl's
silence. She had assured herself, when she found that Hetta was
disposed to quarrel with her lover and to send him back his brooch,
that 'things would come round,' that Paul would be forgotten quickly,--
or laid aside as though he were forgotten,--and that Hetta would soon
perceive it to be her interest to marry her cousin. With such a
prospect before her, Lady Carbury thought it to be her duty as a
mother to show no tendency to sympathize with her girl's sorrow. Such
heart-breakings were occurring daily in the world around them. Who
were the happy people that were driven neither by ambition, nor
poverty, nor greed, nor the cross purposes of unhappy love, to stifle
and trample upon their feelings? She had known no one so blessed. She
had never been happy after that fashion. She herself had within the
last few weeks refused to join her lot with that of a man she really
liked, because her wicked son was so grievous a burden on her