same subject at Perivale. 'Before you throw yourself into close
intimacy with the lady, I think you should know something about her,'
Mrs Winterfield had said to her. ' I do know something about her; I
know that she has the manners and education of a lady, and that she is
living affectionately with her husband, who is devoted to her. What
more ought I to know?' 'If you really do know all that, you know a
great deal,' Mrs Winterfield had replied.

'Do you know anything against her, aunt?' Clara asked, after a pause.

There was another pause before Mrs Winterfield answered. 'No, my dear;
I cannot say that I do. But I think that young ladies, before they make
intimate friendships, should be very sure of their friends.'

'You have already acknowledged that I know a great deal about her,'
Clara replied. And then the conversation was at an end. Clara had not
been quite ingenuous, as she acknowledged to herself. She was aware
that her aunt would not permit herself to repeat rumours as to the
truth of which she had no absolute knowledge. She understood that the
weakness of her aunt's caution was due to the old lady's sense of
charity and dislike of slander. But Clara had buckled on her armour for
Mrs Askerton, and was glad, therefore, to achieve her little victory.
When we buckle on our armour in any cause, we are apt to go on buckling
it, let the cause become as weak as it may; and Clara continued her
intimacy with Mrs Askerton, although there was something in the lady's
modes of speech, and something also in her modes of thinking, which did
not quite satisfy the aspirations of Miss Amedroz as to a friend.

Colonel Askerton himself was a pleasant, quiet man, who seemed to be
contented with the life which he was leading. For six weeks in April