was Madeline changed? However, once she was Madeline’s mamma, Madeline would find a difference! Every night, as Mrs. Leach stepped into the lift, to be borne aloft to her own bower, she said to herself, “He will certainly propose to-morrow,” but alas! one evening these cheering presentiments were crushed. The conversation had turned upon Madeline. She was a favourite subject with her father. “She nursed me well and pulled me through that nasty illness last winter. I shall never forget her. One would have said she was accustomed to nursing--and nursing a man too, ha, ha! I should miss her terribly if she married.” “But there is no prospect of that at present, is there?” asked his listener softly. “No. She is too stand-off. She will ride and dance, and talk and laugh, but once a man’s attentions become marked, she freezes up! I’m afraid she is serious when she says she won’t marry. There’s Lord Tony hanging after her.” “Oh, don’t you think he is very much _épris_ with Miss Teale of New York?” “Not he!” impatiently. “I dare say he and Madeline will settle it some day.” “And then how lonely you will be, dear Mr. West! _I_ know what it is like.” “Yes, I suppose it will be a little dull, unless the young people will live with me.” “Oh!” rather sharply, “they won’t do _that_!” “If they don’t, I shall have to set up another housekeeper, to get some one to take pity on me and marry again,” and he looked significantly into Mrs. Leach’s unabashed eyes. Mrs. Leach held her breath. “But I should never dream of doing that as long as Madeline is with me.” “So here was the matter in a nutshell,” said his listener to herself, as she grasped her fan fiercely and closed her lips. Unless Madeline went off, he would never marry. The great thing, of course, was to get the girl settled. She passed her obvious admirers in lightning review. There was actually not one whom she could lay her finger upon as a possible son-in-law for the little gentleman beside her. She knew several who would have gladly proposed to Madeline, but Madeline never gave them a chance. Why? She would make it her business to discover the reason why Miss Madeline was so cold and _difficile_, and to find out _who_ he was? Mr. Jessop knew. Oh, if she only had a chance of exercising her fascination on that sour-looking barrister! Madeline had had a note from him recently, and she had been on the point of perusing it when she had been disturbed: she frequently mistook Madeline’s letters for her own, and had glanced over a good deal of her correspondence. It had proved extremely commonplace, but she felt confident that Mr. Jessop’s letter would be of absorbing interest.