“Most likely,” said Rosamond. “It is like her now, and very like Charlie.”

“Yes. Charles is quite unlike the family.”

“What family?” said Rosamond.

“The Charnocks, of course. Raymond is a perfect Charnock!”

“A vast advantage,” murmured Rosamond.

“Of course,” said Cecil, taking it quite seriously. “No one else could be the same thing to us. Papa said there was not a match in the whole world that could have gratified him so much.”

“How old are you, Cecil?” quoth Rosamond, with a ripple in her voice.

“Oh, his age was no matter. I don’t like young men. That’s not the drawback; no, it is that horrid Poynsett at the end of the name.”

“You see you had better have waived your objections to youth, and taken a younger son.”

“I couldn’t,” said this naive young person. “Besides, there is much more of a field for me here than at Dunstone since papa’s marriage.”