"But you will be his friend?"
"Your husband shall certainly be my friend;—or, if not, the fault shall not be mine. It shall all be forgotten, Hetta,—as nearly as such things may be forgotten. But I had nothing to say to him till I had seen you." At that moment the door was opened and Lady Carbury entered the room, and, after her greeting with her cousin, looked first at her daughter and then at Roger. "I have come up," said he, "to signify my adhesion to this marriage." Lady Carbury's face fell very low. "I need not speak again of what were my own wishes. I have learned at last that it could not have been so."
"Why should you say so?" exclaimed Lady Carbury.
"Pray, pray, mamma—," Hetta began, but was unable to find words with which to go on with her prayer.
"I do not know that it need be so at all," continued Lady Carbury. "I think it is very much in your own hands. Of course it is not for me to press such an arrangement, if it be not in accord with your own wishes."
"I look upon her as engaged to marry Paul Montague," said Roger.
"Not at all," said Lady Carbury.
"Yes; mamma,—yes," cried Hetta boldly. "It is so. I am engaged to him."
"I beg to let your cousin know that it is not so with my consent,—nor, as far as I can understand at present, with the consent of Mr. Montague himself."
"Mamma!"