Very soon after Mumford’s departure, Louise begged for a few minutes’ private talk.

’Every time I come into this drawing-room, Mrs. Mumford, I think how pretty it is.  What pains you must have taken in furnishing it!  I never saw such nice curtains anywhere else.  And that little screen —­I am so fond of that screen!’

‘It was a wedding present from an old friend,’ Emmeline replied, complacently regarding the object, which shone with embroidery of many colours.

‘Will you help me when I furnish my drawing-room?’ Louise asked sweetly.  And she added, with a direct look, ’I don’t think it will be very long.’

‘Indeed?’

‘I am going to marry Mr. Bowling.’

Emmeline could no longer fed astonishment at anything her guest said or did.  The tone, the air, with which Louise made this declaration affected her with a sense of something quite unforeseen; but, at the same time, she asked herself why she had not foreseen it.  Was not this the obvious answer to the riddle?  All along, Louise had wished to marry Mr. Bowling.  She might or might not have consciously helped to bring about the rupture between Mr. Bowling and Miss Higgins; she might, or might not, have felt genuinely reluctant to take advantage of her half-sister’s defeat.  But a struggle had been going on in the girl’s conscience, at all events.  Yes, this explained everything.  And, on the whole, it seemed to speak in Louise’s favour.  Her ridicule of Mr. Bowling’s person and character became, in this new light, a proof of desire to resist her inclinations.  She had only yielded when it was certain that Miss Higgins’s former lover had quite thrown off his old allegiance, and when no good could be done by self-sacrifice.

‘When did you make up your mind to this, Louise?’

’Yesterday, after our horrid quarrel.  No, you didn’t quarrel; it was all my abominable temper.  This morning I’m going to answer Mr. Bowling’s last letter, and I shall tell him—­what I’ve told you.  He’ll be delighted!’

‘Then you have really wished for this from the first?’

Louise plucked at the fringe on the arm of her chair, and replied at length with maidenly frankness.

’I always thought it would be a good marriage for me.  But I never—­do believe me—­I never tried to cut Cissy out.  The truth is I thought a good deal of the other—­of Mr. Cobb.  But I knew that I couldn’t marry him.  It would be dreadful; we should quarrel frightfully, and he would kill me—­I feel sure he would, he’s so violent in his temper.  But Mr. Bowling is very nice; he couldn’t get angry if he tried.  And ho has a much better position than Mr. Cobb.’

Emmeline began to waver in her conviction and to feel a natural annoyance.

‘And you think,’ she said coldly, ’that your marriage will take place soon?’