Lady Tatham must call. And Lady Tatham had not called.

Her mother was quite right. The marriage of young earls are, generally
speaking, "arranged," and there are hovering relations, and unwritten
laws in the background, which only the foolish forget. "And as I am not a
candidate for the place," thought Lydia, "I won't be misunderstood!"

She did not intend indeed to be troubled--for the present--with such
matters at all.

"Marrying is not in the bill!" She declaimed it to a lilac-bush, standing
with her hands behind her, and face uplifted. "I have no money, and no
position--therefore the vast majority of men won't want to marry me.
And as to scheming to make them want it--why!--good heavens!--when there
are such amusing things to do in the world!"

She paced the garden paths, thinking passionately, defiantly of her art,
yet indignant with herself for these vague yearnings and languors that
had to be so often met and put down.

"Men!--_men!_--what do they matter to me, except for talk--and fun!
Yet there one goes thinking about them--like any fool. It's sex of
course--and youth. I can no more escape them than anybody else. But I
Can be mistress of them. I will. That's where this generation differs.
We needn't drift--we see clear. Oh! those clouds--that blue!--those
stars! Dear world! Isn't beauty enough?"

She lifted her arms above her head in a wild aspiration. And all in a
moment it surprised her to feel her eyes wet with tears.