"She is just at an age when girls often do not know their own minds," said Mrs. Tracy. "I was the same before I married. For my part, I am quite content to remain here, as long as she is willing to do so." And she cast a loving glance round the familiar room.
Her secret hope was that Juliet might ere long win a home of her own. Not that there seemed any likelihood of the girl's marrying at present, but Mrs. Tracy was one of those fond, sanguine mothers who easily persuade themselves of the probability of the happiness they desire for their offspring. Nothing seemed to her more unlikely than that Juliet should remain unsought in marriage. It could not be unreasonable to count upon the arrival of a suitor in every way eligible. Thus Juliet was not the only one who dreamed of a happy future for herself. The visions wrought by her mother's imagination of the life of this darling child might be painted in more commonplace hues, but they were none the less entrancing to the dreamer.
"Has Juliet yet made up her mind with regard to her summer holiday?" asked Hannah. "I have heard her make half a hundred different suggestions, but I have no idea which she finds the most alluring."
"I don't think she knows herself," replied Mrs. Tracy. "A little while ago she was wild to go to Norway. Then she proposed that we should go to Switzerland and the Italian lakes, and thence to Milan for a few weeks, that she might have some lessons of Signor Lombardi. But I do not feel equal to so much knocking about, and I think it better she should not go to Milan, so I discouraged it. You know that the Felgates have asked her to join them at Folkestone, and go across to Boulogne for a week or two; but she declares they would bore her dreadfully, and that if she went on to the Continent, she would want to go farther than Boulogne."
"She is a difficult person to please," said Hannah. "A princess could not be more fastidious. I thought she liked Dora Felgate."
"So she does. I do not think she has actually declined the invitation. I must ask her to decide soon, for our plans are dependent on hers."
"Most people are leaving town now," said Hannah. "And the sooner Juliet gets away the better, for I met Flossie Chalcombe yesterday, accompanied by a young man whom, by the likeness between them, I judged to be her brother. Mrs. Hayes said some time ago that she believed he had left the neighbourhood, but he is evidently here again?"
"Oh, my dear, I do not think you need fear that Juliet would have anything to say to him," replied Mrs. Tracy hurriedly. "She is wiser now, and feels her responsibilities more. Her talking to him at the railway station was just a piece of girlish folly."
"I am glad to hear she is wiser," said Hannah drily.
It was growing dusk as they talked. They were sitting by the open window of the drawing-room, which looked into the tiny strip of garden at the back of the house. Salome was moving to and fro there, watering the flower-borders, which she kept in beautiful order.