"Despise marriage and all that," put in Lowther, his eyes on Mavis
as he tossed off a glass of wine.

"But I don't despise marriage," protested Mavis.

"Really!" said Mrs Devitt, whose sensibilities were a trifle shocked
by this remark.

"If two people are in love with each other, and can afford to marry,
it seems a particularly natural proceeding," said Mavis simply.

"One that you would welcome?" asked Miss Spraggs, as she raised her
thin eyebrows.

"One that someone else would welcome," put in Devitt gallantly.

But Mavis took no notice of this interruption, as she said:

"Of course. Nothing I should wish for more."

Miss Spraggs made two or three further efforts to take a rise out of
Mavis; in each case, such was the younger woman's naturalness and
self-possession, that it was the would--be persecutor who appeared
at a disadvantage.

After luncheon the womenfolk moved to the drawing room; when
Victoria presently went to sit with her invalid brother, Mrs Devitt
assumed a business-like manner as she requested Mavis to sit by her.
The latter knew that her fate was about to be decided. They sat by