‘If it were in summer, Duke, I should urge it on you as a duty; but in this severe weather the change from a hot room——’ ‘Might bring on my bronchitis. I think you’re right, Rhoda. And the champagne at these places is generally a doubtful brand, while of all earthly delusions and snares a ball-supper is the most hollow. But I should like to have seen Daphne at her first ball. I am very fond of little Daphne.’ ‘I am always pleased for you to be interested in my relations,’ replied Mrs. Ferrers, with a sour look; ‘but I must say, of all the young people I ever had anything to do with, Daphne is the most unsatisfactory.’ ‘In what way?’ asked Mr. Ferrers, looking lazily up from his tea-cup. It was afternoon tea-time, and the husband and wife were sitting _tête-à-tête_ before the fire in the Rector’s snug study, where the old black oak shelves were full of the most delightful books, which he was proud to possess but rarely looked at—inside. The outsides, beautiful in tawny and crimson leather, tooled and gilded and labelled and lettered, regaled his eye in many a lazy reverie, when he reposed in his armchair, and watched the firelight winking and blinking at those treasuries of wit and wisdom. ‘In what way is Daphne troublesome, my dear?’ repeated the Rector. ‘I am interested in the puss. I taught her her Catechism.’ ‘I wish you had taught her the spirit as well as the letter,’ retorted Mrs. Ferrers tartly. ‘The girl is an absolute pagan. After flirting with Edgar Turchill in a manner that would have endangered her reputation had she belonged to people of inferior position, she has the supreme folly to refuse him.’ ‘What you call folly may be her idea of wisdom,’ answered the Rector. ‘She may do better than Turchill—a young man of excellent family, but with very humdrum surroundings, and a frightful dead-weight in that mother, who I believe has a life-interest in the estate which would prevent his striking out in any way till she is under the turf. Such a girl as Daphne should do better than Edgar Turchill. She is wise to wait for her chances.’ ‘How worldly you are, Marmaduke! It shocks me to hear such sentiments from a minister of the gospel.’ ‘My dear, he who was in every attribute a model for ministers of the gospel boasted that he was all things to all men. When I discuss worldly matters I talk as a man of the world. I think Daphne ought to make a brilliant marriage. She has the finest eyes I have seen for a long time—always excepting those which illuminate my own fireside,’ he added, smiling benignly on his wife. ‘Oh, pray make no exception,’ she answered snappishly. ‘I never pretended to be a beauty; though my features are certainly more regular than Daphne’s. I am a genuine Lawford, and the Lawfords have had straight noses from time immemorial. Daphne takes after her unhappy mother.’ ‘Ah, poor thing!’ sighed the Rector. ‘She was a lovely young creature when Lawford brought her home.’