She looked at him hastily with an eager “Yes”--then paused a little, and looked again with a dawning understanding which brought the colour to her cheek. “You mean something more than I mean,” she said, a little troubled. “But yet, if you will be kind to George Gaunt, and try to help him, for my sake---- Yes, oh, yes! Why should I refuse? I would not have asked you if I had not thought that perhaps you would do it--for me.” “I would do a great deal for you; for your mother’s daughter, much; and for poor Waring’s child; and again, for yourself. But, Frances, a young man who is so weak, who falls into temptation in this way--my dear, you must let me say it--he is not a mate for such as you.” “For me? Oh no. No one thought--no one ever thought----” cried Frances hastily. “Sir Thomas, I hear mamma coming, and I do not want to trouble her, for she has so much to think of? Will you? Oh, promise me. Look for him to-night; oh, look for him to-night!” “You are so sure that I can be of use?” The trust in her eyes was so genuine, so enthusiastic, that he could not resist that flattery. “Yes, I will try. I will see what it is possible to do. And you, Frances, remember you are pledged, too; you are to do everything you can for me.” He was patting her on the shoulder, looking down upon her with very friendly tender eyes, when Lady Markham came in. She was a little startled by the group; but though she was tired and discomposed and out of heart, she was not so preoccupied but what her quick mind caught a new suggestion from it. Sir Thomas was very rich. He had been devoted to herself, in all honour and kindness, for many years. What if Frances----? A whole train of new ideas burst into her mind on the moment, although she had thought, as she came in, that in the present chaos and hurry of her spirits she had room for nothing more. “You look,” she said with a smile, “as if you were settling something. What is it? An alliance, a league?” “Offensive and defensive,” said Sir Thomas. “We have given each other mutual commissions, and we are great friends, as you see. But these are our little secrets, which we don’t mean to tell. How is Nelly, Lady Markham? And is it all right about the will?” “The will is the least of my cares. I could not inquire into that, as you may suppose; nor is there any need, so far as I know. Nelly is quite enough to have on one’s hands, without thinking of the will. She is very nervous and very headstrong. She would have rushed away out of the house, if I had not used--almost force. She cannot bear to be under the same roof with death.” “It was the old way. I scarcely wonder, for my part: for it was never pretended, I suppose, that there was any love in the matter.” “Oh no” (Lady Markham looked at her own elderly knight and at her young daughter, and said to herself, What if Frances----?); “there was no love. But she has always been very good, and done her duty by him--that, everybody will say.”