"It is early days to talk of our combined households yet, Mrs. Norman. Perhaps it may never come to pass."
"Has Gavine gone away?" Monica called hastily, feeling that the atmosphere might get electric.
And in talking of that young lady, they veered away from the subject of the house and housekeeping.
Major Urquhart was the first to return from the dining-room, and he proposed some music.
Sidney sat down and sang with such warmth and sweetness that Monica marvelled at her. But she and the Admiral were the chief audience, for the Major and his ladylove retired to the farther end of the room, where they conversed in low tones until the party broke up.
It was not a comfortable evening, but as Sidney whispered to Monica in the hall as she was helping her into her cloak, "We have got through it amicably, and that was the most that I hoped."
In a few days the neighbourhood received the news, and Mrs. Norman was recognised as the Major's fiancée. Mrs. de Cressiers could not conceal from Sidney the relief which this turn of affairs had brought to her.
"So much more suitable than my poor dear Austin! She was quite true in all she told me. She never had cared for my boy. It was a very one-sided attachment."
And Sidney and her father just waited on, saying very little to outsiders, but feeling all the more. It was a difficult time to them, and Sidney's spirits, though generally good, fluctuated occasionally.
After her inspection of the house, Mrs. Norman did not trouble them much with her company, but the Major talked of nothing but her wishes and her views and her likings, until even the Admiral began to lose his equanimity of temper. One day there was a question raised about the guns on the Terrace.