door upon them--but they have no intention whatever of being on
visiting terms at the Lodge, nor have I of asking them."

"I am glad to hear it," said Miss Gascoigne--"glad to see that you have
so much good taste and proper feeling, and that all my exertions in
bringing you--as I hope to do to-day--for the first time into our society
will not be thrown away."

Christian was not a very proud woman--that is, her pride lay too deep
below the surface to be easily ruffled, but she could not bear this.

"If by our 'society' you mean my husband's friends, to whom he is to
introduce me, I shall be most happy always to welcome them to his
house; but if you imply that I am to exclude my own--honest, worthy,
honorable people, uneducated though they may be--I must altogether
decline agreeing with you. I shall do no such thing."

"Shall you do, then?" said Miss Gascoigne, after a slight pause; for she
did not expect such resistance from the young, pale, passive creature,
about whom, for the last few days she had rather changed her mind, and
treated with a patronizing consideration, for Aunt Henrietta liked to
patronize; it pleased her egotism; besides, she was shrewd enough to
see that an elegant, handsome girl, married to the Master of Saint
Bede's, was sure soon to be taken up by somebody; better, perhaps; by
her own connections than by strangers. So--more blandly than might
have been expected--she asked, "What shall you do?"

"What seems to me--as I think it will to Dr. Grey"--with a timid glance
at him, and a wish she had found courage to speak to him first on
this matter, "the only right thing I can do. Not to drag my friends into