‘Loves me not,’ she sighed. ‘You see, Fate is against me, Lina. I am doomed to die unmarried.’ ‘Daphne, do you mean that there is someone?’ faltered Madoline, more in earnest than it might seem needful to be with a creature so utterly childlike. ‘There was a man once in a wood,’ said Daphne, with crimson cheeks and downcast eyelids, yet with an arch smile curling her lips all the while. ‘There was a man whom Dibb—I beg your pardon, Martha—and I once met in a wood in our holidays—papa would have me spend my holidays at school, you see—and I have thought since, sometimes—mere idle fancy, no doubt—that he is the only man I should ever care to marry; and that is impossible, for he is engaged to someone else. So you see I am fated to die a spinster.’ ‘Daphne, what do you mean? A man whom you met in a wood, and he was engaged—and——! You don’t mean that you and your friend Miss Dibb made the acquaintance of a strange man whom you met when you were out walking,’ exclaimed Madoline, aghast at the idea. ‘Surely you were too well looked after for that! You never went out walking alone, did you? I thought Frenchwomen were so extremely particular.’ ‘Of course they are,’ replied Daphne, laughing. ‘I was only drawing on my imagination, dearest, just to see that solemn face of yours. It was worth the trouble. No, Lina dear, there is no one. My heart is as free as my shuttlecock, when I send it flying over the roof scaring the swallows. And now, let us talk about your dear self. I want you to tell me all about Mr. Goring; about Gerald. I suppose I may call him by his christian name, as he is to be my brother-in-law by-and-by.’ ‘Your brother, dear.’ ‘Thank you, Lina. That sounds ever so much nicer. I am so short of relations. Then I shall always call him Gerald. What a pretty name!’ ‘He was called after his mother, Lady Geraldine.’ ‘I see. She represented the patrician half of his family, and his father the plebeian half, I believe? The father was a Dibb, was he not—a money-grubber?’ ‘His father was a very worthy man, who rose from the ranks, and made his fortune as a contractor.’ ‘And Lady Geraldine married him for the sake of his worthiness; and you and Gerald are going to spend his money.’ ‘Mr. Goring and his wife were a very united couple, I believe, Daphne. There is no reason why you should laugh at them.’ ‘Except my natural malice, which makes me inclined to ridicule good people. You should have said that, Madoline; for you look as if you meant it. Was the contractor’s name always Goring?’ ‘No; he was originally a Mr. Giles, but he changed his name soon after his marriage, and took the name of his wife’s maternal grandfather, a Warwickshire squire.’ ‘What a clever way of hooking himself on to the landed gentry!’ said Daphne. ‘And now, please tell me all about Gerald. Is he very nice?’