"My dear," she said, "you are very young, and this is a serious step. You must take care not to run into it heedlessly. Do you really feel that you would be happy with Mr. Kingston? He is much older than you are, you know." Rachel thought of the new house, and of the diamonds, and of all her lover's tributes to her worth and beauty. "Yes, I think so, aunt. He is a very nice man. He is very kind to me." "He has lived so long as a bachelor, that he has got into bachelor ways," Mrs. Hardy reluctantly proceeded. "He has been rather--a--gay, so they say. I doubt if you will find him domesticated, my dear." "I shall not _wish_ him to stay always at home with me," replied the girl, with a fine glow of generosity. "And I do not mind tobacco-smoke, nor latchkeys, nor things of that sort. And if he is fond of his club, I hope he will go there as often as he likes. _I_ shall not try to deprive him of his pleasures, when he will give me so many of my own. And, you know, dear aunt, I shall be quite close to you; I can never be lonely while I am able to run in and out here." Mrs. Hardy was reassured. This was the pliant, sweet-natured little creature who would adapt herself kindly to any husband--who was not, of course, an absolutely outrageous brute. And Mr. Kingston, except that he was a little old, a little of a _viveur_, a trifle selfish, and, it was said, rather bad tempered when he was put out, was everything that a reasonable girl could desire. She smiled, rose from her chair, and kissed her niece's pretty face with motherly pride and fondness. "Well, my love, it is a great match for you," she said, "and I hope it will be a happy one as well." And then, hearing her husband coming downstairs, she left the room hurriedly to meet and drive him back again, that she might explain to him the interesting state of affairs while she put on her gown for dinner. CHAPTER VI. A RASH PROMISE. There was of course no opposition to Rachel's engagement. Mr. Hardy, away from his office, was simply Mrs. Hardy's husband, not because he had no will of his own, but because he acknowledged her superior capacity for the management of that complicated business called getting on in the world, to which they had both devoted their lives for so many years. Mrs. Reade, who next to her mother was the greatest "power" in the family, approved of the match highly, though she had herself proposed to be Mrs. Kingston at an earlier stage of her career; but she had a good deal to say before she would allow it to be considered a settled thing.