"What a charming surprise, my dear!" she said, as she glanced over it. "Invitations for a private concert at Lady Camperdown's. Most exclusive. That sweet Lady Camperdown! There will be a carpet-dance afterwards. I must write off at once and order our dresses." "But surely, Lady Dudgeon, one of the ten or fifteen dresses that I have already would do for such an occasion." "My dear Eleanor! Go to Lady Camperdown's concert in a dress that you have ever worn before! Such a thing is not to be thought of. It would not be doing your duty in that state of life to which it has pleased Providence to call you." Here her ladyship looked at her watch. "My dear, I expect Captain Dayrell here about twelve, and I should like you to change your dress before he arrives. He told me last evening that he wanted to see me to-day, so I asked him to call early, as I am going shopping immediately after luncheon." "But Captain Dayrell is coming to see you, Lady Dudgeon. There is no occasion for him to see me." "He is coming to see me, it is true: but I rather suspect it is about a matter that intimately concerns you." "Indeed! But I really cannot see in what way Captain Dayrell's visit can concern me." "It may concern you very nearly. I have every reason to believe that Captain Dayrell is coming here this morning to ask my sanction to his making you a formal offer of marriage." "To make me an offer of marriage! You must be jesting." "I was never more serious in my life. You could not fail to see with what attention Captain Dayrell treated you at the ball the other evening. And on the two or three previous occasions when he has met you in society, there has been an empressement in his manner which has led me to suspect that he was only waiting to see a little more of you before making up his mind to ask you to become his wife." "Only waiting to see a little more of me! I am overwhelmed by Captain Dayrell's preference." "Don't try to be sarcastic, Eleanor. Sarcasm in young people is little less than odious." Eleanor rose. There was a heightened colour in her cheeks, an added brightness in her eyes. "Lady Dudgeon, should Captain Dayrell come here this morning on such an errand as the one you have mentioned, you can give him his congé as soon as you please. And I beg that you will not send for me, as I shall certainly decline to see him." "Tut tut, child! you don't know what you are talking about. A little maidenly shyness is all very nice and proper, especially when the offer is a first one. But prudery may be carried too far; and, in the case of Captain Dayrell, a pretended rejection might perhaps frighten him away altogether." "A pretended rejection, Lady Dudgeon! I fail to understand you."