Austin looked a little embarrassed; so, without a word, Sidney took him into the drawing-room.
"Have you been getting into any scrape?" she asked him.
"No; it's only—Dash it all! I won't beat about the bush. I want you to persuade the mother to call upon Mrs. Norman soon—to-morrow. She's so on her high horse with me. It's ridiculous! You can influence her; she is fond of you. It's a shame! The poor little woman is connected with us. Why should she be snubbed because she is poor and unknown? It's rank snobbery. You know what mother is like: 'I may call on her when I have time. There is no hurry. She is a complete stranger to me,' etc. etc. Do go up to-morrow and make her see reason."
Sidney smiled at his eagerness.
"My dear boy, your mother won't be driven. Does it make a vast difference to Mrs. Norman whether your mother calls at once or a little later? She means to do it, which is something."
"I should rather think she did," said Austin hotly. "She ought to have done it before she went away. Now, be a brick, and tell the mother what a good sort Mrs. Norman is. Women are always so queer when a man praises one of their own sex. But you're different; you're generous, and she'll listen to you and take your word for it."
Sidney was touched by his faith in her.
"I will do my very best," she said, "but don't blame me if I fail."
Austin looked relieved. He sat back in a chair and commenced to talk. He had not been to the house for a long time, and Sidney was glad to have him back on the old lines. But his talk was chiefly of Mrs. Norman, and Sidney listened and tried to give him her sympathy.
"Can't think why your uncle is always poking about down there. He's making her a fence now, but I told her it wasn't necessary; she has a nice iron railing. What else could she want? And he strikes me as getting quite doddery—makes eyes at her. Don't laugh! She finds him rather a bore, between ourselves; but he turns up nearly every day, she tells me."