"Lady Ushant is coming to Bragton. I suppose that poor man is dying."
"He is very ill certainly."
"And if anything happens there who can say what may happen anywhere else? Lady Ushant will have something else except Mary to think of, if her own nephew comes into all the property."
"I didn't know she was such friends with the Squire as that."
"Well;—there it is. Lady Ushant is coming to Bragton and Mary is not going to Cheltenham."
This she said as though the news must be of vital importance to Larry Twentyman. He stood for awhile scratching his head as he thought of it. At last it appeared to him that Mary's continual residence in Dillsborough would of itself hardly assist him. "I don't see, Mrs. Masters, that that will make her a bit kinder to me.'
"Larry, don't you be a coward,—nor yet soft."
"As for coward, Mrs. Masters, I don't know—"
"I suppose you really do love the girl."
"I do;—I think I've shown that."