"It will be so perfectly easy when the moment comes to invent some excuse or other for shelving William's claims," sighed Ashe's mother. "Nobody is indispensable, and if that old woman is provoked, she will be capable of any mischief."
"What do you want for William?" said Mary, smiling.
"He ought, of course, to have the Home Office!" replied Lady Tranmore, with fire.
Mary vowed that he would certainly have it. "Kitty is so clever, she will understand how important discretion is, before things go too far."
Lady Tranmore made no answer. She gazed into the fire, and Miss Lyster thought her depressed.
"Has William ever interfered?" she asked, cautiously.
Lady Tranmore hesitated.
"Not that I know of," she said, at last. "Nor will he ever—in the sense in which any ordinary husband would interfere."
"I know! It is as though he had a kind of superstition about it. Isn't there a fairy story, in which an elf marries a mortal on condition that if he ever ill-treats her, her people will fetch her back to fairyland? One day the husband lost his temper and spoke crossly; instantly there was a crash of thunder and the elf-wife vanished."
"I don't remember the story. But it's like that—exactly. He said to me once that he would never have asked her to marry him if he had not been able to make up his mind to let her have her own way—never to coerce her."