Mrs. Brace understood him at once.
"My lord," she said, "I am so sorry that Lady Doris called her tame."
He laughed good-naturedly.
"She speaks her mind frankly," he said, "and that, at least, is a recommendation. Lady Estelle would only be amused if she heard it."
"He means to marry her," said Mark to his wife, as the earl hurried after his daughter; but Mrs. Brace had the strangest expression on her face.
"What is it?" Mark asked. "Surely you are not ill?"
"No, I am not ill; but I will say this, Mark, it is a most awful world—no one can understand it."
"Do as I do, my dear; the world never troubles me, because I take no notice of it."
But that philosophy was not in the way of Mark's wife.
"Doris," said the earl, when he overtook his daughter, "I wish to consult you."