Grace went to Adela's room, and found her there, with Harriet. She had been recalling the past: and she saw now how attentive Francis Grubb had been to Adela; how fond of talking with her. "Had our eyes been open, we might have seen it all!" sighed Grace. "How nicely you were all taken in last night!" she said, assuming a light playfulness, as she sat down at the open window. "Don't you think mamma and I got up that fable well about Mr. Grubb?" "Got it up!" cried Harriet. "You hypocritical sinners! Did he not make the offer?" "Ay; but not to me. It was better to put it so, don't you see, by way of breaking it to you." "Then you are not going to be Lady Grace Grubb, after all!" said Adela. "Well, it would have been an incongruous assimilation of names." "I am not. Guess who it is he wants, Adela?" "Frances?" cried Harriet. "No, but you are very near--you burn, as we children used to say at our play." "Not Adela!" "It is," answered Grace. "And I congratulate her heartily. Lady Adela Grubb will sound better than Lady Grace would." "Thank you," satirically answered Adela; "you may retain the name yourself, Grace. None of your Grubbs for me." "Ah, don't be silly, child. A grub, indeed! He is one of the best and most admirable of men; a true nobleman." The words were interrupted by a laugh from Harriet; a ringing laugh. "Oh, Gracie, how unfortunate! What shall we do! Frances wrote last night to tell Miss Upton of your engagement, and the letter's posted." Grace Chenevix suppressed her mortification, and quitted her sisters with a smiling face. But when she was safe in her own room, she burst into a flood of distressing tears. Lord and Lady Acorn chose to breakfast that morning alone in the library. Afterwards Adela was sent for. Straightening down the slim waist of her pretty morning dress with an action that spoke of conscious vanity, she obeyed the summons. Lord Acorn threw aside the morning paper when she entered. "Adela, sit down," he said, pushing the chair at his elbow slightly forward. "We have received an offer of marriage for you; and though it is not in every respect all that we could wish----" "From the grub," interrupted Adela, merging ceremony in indignation, as she stood confronting both her parents, regardless of the seat proffered. "Grace has been telling me." "Hush, Adela! don't give way to flippant folly," interposed her mother. "Have you considered the advantages of such an alliance as this?" "Advantages, mamma! I don't understand. Have you"--turning to her father--"considered the disadvantages, sir?" "There is only one disadvantage connected with it, Adela--that he is not of noble birth." "But that is insuperable, papa!" "Indeed, no," said Lord Acorn. "You will possess every good that wealth can command; all things that can conduce to happiness. Your position will be an enviable one. How many of the daughters of our order--in more favourable circumstances than yours--have married these merchant-princes!"