half expectation, and half angry recollection.



CHAPTER II

"My dear Ellen, I beg you will not interfere any more with Connie's
riding. I have given leave, and that really must settle it. She tells me
that her father always allowed her to ride alone--with a groom--in
London and the Campagna; she will of course pay all the expenses of it
out of her own income, and I see no object whatever in thwarting her.
She is sure to find our life dull enough anyway, after the life she has
been living."

"I don't know why you should call Oxford dull, Ewen!" said Mrs. Hooper
resentfully. "I consider the society here much better than anything
Connie was likely to see on the Riviera--much more respectable anyway.
Well, of course, everybody will call her fast--but that's your affair. I
can see already she won't be easily restrained. She's got an uncommonly
strong will of her own."

"Well, don't try and restrain her, dear, too much," laughed her husband.
"After all she's twenty, she'll be twenty-one directly. She may not be
more than a twelvemonth with us. She need not be, as far as my functions
are concerned. Let's make friends with her and make her happy."

"I don't want my girls talked about, thank you, Ewen!" His wife gave an
angry dig to the word "my." "Everybody says what a nice ladylike girl
Alice is. But Nora often gives me a deal of trouble--and if she takes to
imitating Connie, and wanting to go about without a chaperon, I don't