"Ah! and that constitutes mourning, eh? Well, there is very little mourning in your laughing eyes. Who is dead?"
"My mother-in-law."
"Your mother-in-law! I didn't know Ormonde——"
"I mean Mrs. Liddell; and I am quite sorry for her; she was wonderfully fond of me, and very kind."
"Why, what an angel you must be to fascinate a belle-mere! Then the dear departed must be the mother of that Miss Liddell whom Ormonde was recommending to me this afternoon?"
"Who—my husband? How silly! She would not suit you a bit."
"Well, Ormonde thought her fortune might."
"Oh, her fortune! that is another thing. But she will not be so very rich if she fulfils her promise to settle part of her fortune on my boys. You see, if their poor father had lived, he would have shared their uncle's money with his sister. Now it is too hideously unjust that my poor dear boys should have nothing, and Katherine is very properly going to make it up to them."
"A young woman with a very high sense of justice. A good deal under the influence of her charming sister-in-law, I presume."
"Well, rather," returned Mrs. Ormonde, with an air of superiority. "Katherine is a mere enthusiastic school-girl, easily imposed upon. Both Colonel Ormonde and myself feel bound to look after her."