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understand that he told his father he was willing to offer for you? If that is so, isn't it possible that—"
    "It isn't so!" said Lucilla flatly. "I don't know what he said to Lord Iverley, but to me he said that it would be unwise to provoke a quarrel, and that the best thing would be for us to seem to be willing to become engaged, and to trust in providence to rescue us before the knot was tied between us. But I have no faith in providence, ma'am, and I felt as though—as though I was being tangled in a net! And the only thing I could think of to do was to run away. You see, there isn't anyone I can appeal to since my uncle died—and I daresay he wouldn't have been of much use, because he always let Aunt Clara have her own way in everything! He was a great dear, but not a man of resolution."
    Miss Wychwood blinked. "Is he dead, then? I beg your pardon, but I thought you said that your uncle would very likely come to find you, if he could be persuaded to bestir himself!"
    Lucilla stared at her, and suddenly gave a crack of scornful laughter. "Not that uncle, ma'am! The other one!" she said.
    "The other one? To be sure! How stupid I am to have supposed you only had one uncle! Do, pray, tell me about your horrid uncle, so that I shan't become confused again! Was your amiable uncle his brother?"
    "Oh, no! My Uncle Abel was Mama's brother. My Uncle Oliver is a Carleton, and Papa's elder brother—though only three years older!" said Lucilla, in further disparagement of Mr Oliver Carleton. "He and my Uncle Abel were appointed to be my guardians, but naturally they weren't obliged to take care of me while Mama was alive, except for managing my fortune."
    "Have you a fortune?" asked Miss Wychwood, much impressed.
    "Well, I think I have, because Aunt Clara is for ever telling me to beware of fortune-hunters, but it seems to me that it belongs to my Uncle Oliver, and not to me at all, because I am not allowed to spend it! He sends my allowance to Aunt Clara, and she only gives me pin-money, and when I wrote to tell him that I was old enough to buy dresses myself, he sent me a disagreeable answer, refusing to alter the arrangement! Whenever I have appealed to him he always says that my aunt knows best, and I must do as she bids me! He is the most odiously selfish person in the world, and hasn't a particle of affection for me. Only fancy, ma'am, he has an enormous house in London, and has never asked me to visit him! Not once! And when I suggested that he might like me to keep house for him he answered in the rudest way that he wouldn't like it at all!"
    "That was certainly uncivil, but perhaps he thought you rather too young to keep house. I collect he is not married?"
    "Good gracious, no!" said Lucilla. "Which just shows you, doesn't it?"
    "I must own that he does sound very disagreeable," admitted Annis.
    "Yes, and what is more his manners are most disobliging—in fact, he is detestably top-lofty, never takes the least trouble to behave with civility to anyone, and—and treats one with the sort of stupid indifference which makes one long to hit him!"
    Since it was obvious that she was fast working herself into a state of considerable agitation, it was perhaps fortunate that the entrance of Miss Farlow acted as an effectual stop to any further animadversions on the character of Mr Oliver Carleton. Miss Farlow's demeanour informed her employer that she was deeply wounded, but determined to bear the slight cast upon her with Christian resignation. Nothing could have exceeded her civility to Lucilla, which was so punctilious as almost to crush that ebullient young lady; and the manner in which she listened to whatever Annis said, and instantly agreed with it, was so servile that an impartial observer might well have supposed her to be the slave of a tyrannical mistress. But just as Annis, exasperated beyond endurance by these tactics, was on the point of losing her temper, Mr Elmore was announced, creating a welcome diversion.
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