"I hope you will be candid, Mrs. Farron," she said aloud, and for her
this was the depth of dissimulation.

"Well, then," said Adelaide, "you and I are in about the same position,
aren't we? We are both willing that our children should marry, and we
have no objection to offer to their choice except our own ignorance. We
both want time to judge. But how can we get time, Mrs. Wayne? If we do
not take definite action _against_ an engagement, we are giving our
consent to it. I want a little reasonable delay, but we can get delay
only by refusing to hear of an engagement. Do you see what I mean? Will
you help me by pretending to be a very stern parent, just so that these
young people may have a few months to think it over without being too
definitely committed?"

Mrs. Wayne shrank back. She liked neither diplomacy nor coercion.

"But I have really no control over Pete," she said.

"Surely, if he isn't in a position to support a wife--"

"He is, if she would live as he does."

Such an idea had never crossed Mrs. Farron's mind. She looked round her
wonderingly, and said without a trace of wilful insolence in her tone:

"Live here, you mean?"

"Yes, or somewhere like it."