"Confess you wouldn't like Oliver to marry her."
"Oliver never had any thought of it."
Lady Niton shook her queer gray head.
"Oliver paid her a good deal of attention last summer. Alicia must certainly have considered the matter. And she is a young lady not easily baffled."
"Baffled!" Mrs. Fotheringham laughed. "What can she do?"
"Well, it's true that Oliver seems to have got another idea in his head. What do you think of that pretty child who came yesterday--the Mallory girl?"
Mrs. Fotheringham hesitated, then said, coldly:
"I don't like discussing these things. Oliver has plenty of time before him."
"If he is turning his thoughts in that quarter," persisted Lady Niton, "I give him my blessing. Well bred, handsome, and well off--what's your objection?"
Mrs. Fotheringham laughed impatiently. "Really, Lady Niton, I made no objection."