"You are bound to know sooner or later. You might even come across her at some friend's house. I am not a Holme, I am glad to say. I can't understand bearing anyone a lifelong grudge. I only saw her once, a very handsome woman, pride and power in every line of her face." "I have seen a portrait of her with him as a little girl. I always thought she must have died in infancy." "Well, that's that, and now to talk of yourselves. You must soften him, Anstice, win him! He must be made of stone to withstand you!" "We are very good friends," said Anstice with dignity; "he told me I could tell you that. I want nothing more at present. And when the weather gets warmer and finer, he will be off again yachting." "I wish his yacht was at the bottom of the ocean," said Lady Lucy with warmth, "and I hope your absence now will make him see what a treasure he is despising." "I am sure he does not despise me," said Anstice, laughing, and then she switched the conversation off to other topics. But she thought a great deal of Justin, now that she was away from him, and wondered if she would ever be able to make him a really happy man. One day she asked if she might have Louise over from Hampstead to tea. Lady Lucy suggested Sunday afternoon. "I have nobody coming and you can have your protégée to yourself. I am old enough now to like to retire to my room, and have a thorough good sleep between lunch and tea." So Louise came over. She was bright and animated, and overjoyed to see Anstice again. "I never can thank you enough for getting me out of that hole. I think I should have gone melancholy mad had I stayed there much longer." "I thought you might have come back to your uncle at Christmas time," said Anstice; "did you get holidays?" "Oh yes, but winter in the Fells—at Ramdale! It is so awful! I went down to Bournemouth with my friend and thoroughly enjoyed it. How is my uncle? Do you know?" "I wondered if you ever thought about him," said Anstice. "He is one of the pleasant surprises in the Fells. An unselfish old man who gives up his young niece for her good, and exchanges her bright society for a sad, weary, elderly person not his equal in birth, and therefore hardly a companion for him." "I was never bright," said Louise with a shamed face; "I grumbled and glowered all the time. But I will go back at Easter, and in the summer, if he will have me; and I will try to be nice to him. Then I shall see you again, I hope." She chatted on then about her work, and Anstice listened and sympathized. Lady Lucy appeared for tea, and then Anstice carried off Louise to evening church, to hear a noted preacher near there. She had rather a nice little talk with her on the way home; Louise told her that she went to a very nice church at Hampstead.