"Then there _is_ something?" cried Mrs Wargrave, delighted, clasping her hands. "I was sure of it: I am a dreadful person, Mademoiselle; there is no deceiving _me_." "So it would appear," said Claire, with a gleam of humour which was a little compensation, she felt, for her trouble. And she added, casting down her eyes, "I have had a--very unexpected--proposal of marriage." "I knew it!" Mrs Wargrave said. She added, more warmly than she felt, "And I hope it is a good one--and makes you happy. Tell me all about it, my dear." It was not that she had never called Mademoiselle "my dear" before, for this is a word which glides very easily to some women's lips: but once more it made Claire smile. "It makes me neither happy nor unhappy," she said, "though it is a very good one; for it is not a possible thing: except the trouble of vexing some one, it can do nothing to me." "You can't accept it?" Mrs Wargrave felt a momentary relief, and then a stronger sentiment seized her. She could not bear to have sport spoiled in the matrimonial way. "But why?" she said. "Why? Do tell me all about it. If it is a good offer, and there is nothing against the man, why shouldn't you accept it, Mademoiselle?" "I have many reasons, Madame; but the first is, that I do not care for him at all. You do not accept an offer which you have never expected, never thought of as possible." "Oh, if that is all!" said Mrs Wargrave. "Good heavens! nobody ever would be married if that was to be the rule. Why, I never was more surprised in my life than when Mr Wargrave proposed to me! That's nothing--nothing! If it is a good match----" "It is much too good a match. The gentleman is not only much, much richer than I--that is nothing, for I am poor--but he is better in the world in every way. His family would consider it a _mésalliance_: and it would be so completely to my interest----" "But, good heavens!" cried Mrs Wargrave again, "what does that matter? Let his family complain--that's their affair. You surely would never throw up a good match for that? Is there anything against the man?" "Nothing!" said Mademoiselle, with some earnestness. "Then, what does it matter about his family? I suppose he's old enough to judge for himself? And he could make nice settlements, and all that?" "Very likely--I do not know. He is rich, I am aware of that."