“No one else?”
“No—yes—I do not know; I believe there is a waiter, or”—
“My dearest Valeria,” said Mrs. Sutherland, drawing her to the opposite extremity of the room, “do me a favour; return to the room, and, not only while you remain here, but after you go back to Cashmere, prevent as long as possible any private conversation between those two young people; interrupt them; follow them; stay with them: circumvent them in every way.”
“Helen, you astonish me! Me play Madame Detrop, not ‘for one night only,’ but for a whole season! You positively shock me!” exclaimed Mrs. Vivian, and her eyes asked, what can you mean?
Mrs. Sutherland answered both words and looks at the same time, by saying, very gravely,—
“Valeria, I ask a very strange favour, and impose upon your friendship the unpleasant alternative of refusing me point blank, or taking upon yourself a most ungracious duty; but, dear Valeria, in this at least the end will justify the means. I do not wish to separate my son and niece, as your eyes seem to say, but au contraire, to prevent their separation.”
“I do not comprehend.”
“I wish to prevent a quarrel. Young people will not quarrel before others, any more than they will make love before them. There is a point of controversy between Mark and India, and I do not wish them to have an opportunity of discussing it until both their heads are cool.”
“Ah, I think I know the point of contention,” said Valeria, with a bright look of sudden intelligence.
“You?”