Edith had rather objected to this arrangement, for Captain Lennox

was expected to arrive by a late train this very evening; but,

although she was a spoiled child, she was too careless and idle

to have a very strong will of her own, and gave way when she

found that her mother had absolutely ordered those extra

delicacies of the season which are always supposed to be

efficacious against immoderate grief at farewell dinners. She

contented herself by leaning back in her chair, merely playing

with the food on her plate, and looking grave and absent; while

all around her were enjoying the mots of Mr. Grey, the gentleman

who always took the bottom of the table at Mrs. Shaw's dinner

parties, and asked Edith to give them some music in the

drawing-room. Mr. Grey was particularly agreeable over this

farewell dinner, and the gentlemen staid down stairs longer than

usual. It was very well they did--to judge from the fragments of

conversation which Margaret overheard.

'I suffered too much myself; not that I was not extremely happy

with the poor dear General, but still disparity of age is a

drawback; one that I was resolved Edith should not have to

encounter. Of course, without any maternal partiality, I foresaw

that the dear child was likely to marry early; indeed, I had

often said that I was sure she would be married before she was

nineteen. I had quite a prophetic feeling when Captain

Lennox'--and here the voice dropped into a whisper, but Margaret

could easily supply the blank. The course of true love in Edith's

case had run remarkably smooth. Mrs. Shaw had given way to the

presentiment, as she expressed it; and had rather urged on the

marriage, although it was below the expectations which many of

Edith's acquaintances had formed for her, a young and pretty

heiress. But Mrs. Shaw said that her only child should marry for

love,--and sighed emphatically, as if love had not been her

motive for marrying the General. Mrs. Shaw enjoyed the romance of

the present engagement rather more than her daughter. Not but

that Edith was very thoroughly and properly in love; still she

would certainly have preferred a good house in Belgravia, to all

the picturesqueness of the life which Captain Lennox described at

Corfu. The very parts which made Margaret glow as she listened,

Edith pretended to shiver and shudder at; partly for the pleasure

she had in being coaxed out of her dislike by her fond lover, and

partly because anything of a gipsy or make-shift life was really

distasteful to her. Yet had any one come with a fine house, and a

fine estate, and a fine title to boot, Edith would still have

clung to Captain Lennox while the temptation lasted; when it was

over, it is possible she might have had little qualms of

ill-concealed regret that Captain Lennox could not have united in

his person everything that was desirable. In this she was but her

mother's child; who, after deliberately marrying General Shaw

with no warmer feeling than respect for his character and

establishment, was constantly, though quietly, bemoaning her hard

lot in being united to one whom she could not love.




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