"I wonder you like to have her there."
"I know I shall never have courage to tell her to go," was the candid and characteristic answer. "I was afraid of her as a boy, and I'm not sure but I'm afraid of her still."
"I don't like her—I don't like either of them," said Anne in a low tone.
"Don't you like Maude?"
"No. I am sure she is not true. To my mind there is something very false about them both."
"I think you are wrong, Anne; certainly as regards Maude."
Miss Ashton did not press her opinion: they were his relatives. "But I should have pitied poor Edward had he lived and married her," she said, following out her thoughts.
"I was mistaken when I thought Maude cared for Edward," observed Lord Hartledon. "I'm sure I did think it. I used to tell Edward so; but a day or two after he died I found I was wrong. The dowager had been urging Maude to like him, and she could not, and it made her miserable."
"Did Maude tell you this?" inquired Anne; her radiant eyes full of surprise.
"Not Maude: she never said a word to me upon the subject. It was the dowager."