Ella wondered how she knew that they had been out for a walk, but did not ask her. "He wasn't," she said indignantly. "You say you like him, and you're always trying to make him out a poor weak creature with no backbone at all. I think he's a very wise man, and a good one too. I love him for loving his family as much as he does."
"Oh, well, my dear, if you love him, I don't want anything better. I told him the other day he ought to marry again, now the time has come for him to lose his girls. He made his first wife happy enough, and he'd make you. He's no longer young, but he isn't old either, and won't be for a long time to come. He's a husband you could be proud of, and he'd never let you down."
"Thanks for the offer. I'll wait till he makes it himself, and then I'll think about it. But please don't make mischief, or try to manage. As a matter of fact, I think the idea would rather shock him, and it isn't one that appeals to me, or I shouldn't talk about it as I'm doing now. He has been awfully sweet to me, and treated me very much like the rest. It has been just what I've wanted, for I was lonely till they came here. I'm going to keep it up, and help him to get over his bad time—dear Mr. Grafton! If you go spreading those ideas about you'll make it difficult for me. So please don't."
"I should be a precious fool if I did," said Lady Grafton enigmatically.
[CHAPTER XX]
CAROLINE'S HOME-COMING
Caroline and Maurice went to the South of France for their honeymoon, and were away a month. On their return they spent a couple of days in Paris, where Barbara was again installed for her last three months with her 'family.'
Barbara had taken very kindly to Maurice. She had cleared the ground by telling him everything she could think of that she had ever said about him from the first. "Now if you can like me after that," she said, "well and good. We shall be friends for life. If not, say so at once, and I shall know what to do."