'What is that child's future?' Mrs. Ormonde asked of Annabel, when Thyrza had left them together.
'Not a sad one, I think,' said Annabel, musingly. 'Happily, her husband will not be an untaught working man.'
'No, thank goodness for that! I suppose they will be married in two or three weeks. Her voice is a beautiful thing lost.'
'We won't grieve over that. Her own happiness is of more account. I do wish father could have seen her!'
'Oh, she must come to us again some day. Your father would have alarmed her too much. Haven't you felt all the time as if she were something very delicate, something to be carefully guarded against shocks and hazards? As I saw her from my window going out of the garden this morning, I felt a sort of fear; I was on the point of sending a servant to keep watch over her from a distance.
There was a silence, then Mrs. Ormonde murmured:
'I wonder whether she is in love with him?'
Annabel smiled, but said nothing.
'She told me that he is very kind to her. 'Just as kind as Lyddy,' she said. Indeed, who wouldn't be?'
'We have every reason to think highly of Mr. Grail,' Annabel remarked. 'He must be as exceptional in his class as she is.'