"Ha! yes! A good dinner's a nice thing when you can enjoy it free and unfettered, but it's like matrimony, my dear, full of restrictions, and very disappointing when you come to taste it. Well, there, there, there, now we have had our little talk and confidences, we will go upstairs to the drawing-room. It will be more cheerful for you." He rose, taking his child's hand, kissing it tenderly, and holding it before he drew it through his arm, while Maude sighed gently, and suffered herself to be led upstairs. Her ladyship was better, and she smiled with a sweetly pathetic expression in her countenance as Maude entered with her father, rising, and crossing to meet them, and kissing her child upon her forehead. "Bless you, my darling!" she said; "pray be happy in the knowledge that you are doing your duty. Go now, Justine." "Yes, my lady," said that sphinx; and as soon as they were alone her ladyship continued-- "Yes, in the thought that you are doing your duty. At your age I too had my little love romance, but I was forced to marry your poor papa." "Oh, damn it, my dear!" cried his lordship, looking at his wife aghast; "I was forced to marry you." "Barmouth! That will do! Maude, my child, I begged Sir Grantley to come and dine with us _en famille_ this evening." "Oh, mamma!" cried Maude, "was that wise?" "Trust me, my dear, for doing what is best," said her ladyship. There was a great bouquet of flowers on the table, which was littered with presents from the bridegroom elect, and family friends; but Maude did not seem to heed them, only the flowers, which she picked up, and as Lady Barmouth smiled and shook her head at her husband, Maude went and sat down by the open window, to begin picking the petals to pieces and shower them down. Some fell fluttering out into the area; some littered her dress and the carpet; and some were wafted by the wind to a distance; but Maude's mind seemed far away, and her little white fingers performed their task of destroying her present, as her head sank down lower and lower, bowed down by its weight of care. It was autumn, and the shades of evening were falling, and so were Maude's spirits; hence a tear fell from time to time upon the flowers, to lie amidst the petals like a dew-drop; but they fell faster as her ladyship uttered an impatient cry, for just then the black-bearded Italian stopped beneath the window, swung round his organ, and began to grind out dolefully the _Miserere_ once more and its following melody from _Trovatore_, the whole performance sounding so depressing in her nervous state that the poor girl's first inclination was to bury her face in her hands, and sob as if her heart would break. She set her teeth though firmly, glanced back in the room, and then, smiling down at the handsome simple face beneath her, she threw a sixpence which the man caught in his soft hat. "Grazie, signora," said the Italian, smiling and showing his white teeth.