Lounging with both elbows on the low chimneypiece, Sir Jasper smiled at
his mother's fears, and said to his cousin, the instant they were alone,
"She is worried about E.S. Odd, isn't it, what instinctive antipathies
women take to one another?"

"Why did you ask E.S. here?" demanded Treherne.

"My dear fellow, how could I help it? My mother wanted the general, my
father's friend, and of course his wife must be asked also. I couldn't
tell my mother that the lady had been a most arrant coquette, to put it
mildly, and had married the old man in a pet, because my cousin and I
declined to be ruined by her."

"You _could_ have told her what mischief she makes wherever she goes,
and for Octavia's sake have deferred the general's visit for a time. I
warn you, Jasper, harm will come of it."

"To whom, you or me?"

"To both, perhaps, certainly to you. She was disappointed once when she
lost us both by wavering between your title and my supposed fortune. She
is miserable with the old man, and her only hope is in his death, for he
is very feeble. You are free, and doubly attractive now, so beware, or
she will entangle you before you know it."

"Thanks, Mentor. I've no fear, and shall merely amuse myself for a
week--they stay no longer." And with a careless laugh, Sir Jasper
strolled away.