"Does Lucy really mean to have that precious fool of a Tom Palmer?" he abruptly asked. Miss Arkell felt indignant. She wondered how he dared to speak in that way; and she answered sharply. "Tom Palmer is a most superior young man. _I_ have not perceived that he has any thing of the fool about him, and I don't think many others have. Whenever he marries, he will make an excellent husband. Why should you wish to set me against him? Let me urge you not to interfere with Lucy's affairs, Travice; she is under my protection now." Oh, if Mildred could but have read Travice Arkell's heart that night!--if she had but read Lucy's! How different things might have been! Travice moved to shake hands with her. "I must wish you good evening," he said. "I hope you and Lucy will have a pleasant journey to-morrow. We shall see you both again some time, I suppose." He went out with the cold words upon his lips. He went out with the conviction, that Lucy was to marry Tom Palmer, irrevocably seated on his heart. And Travice Arkell thought the world was a miserable world, no longer worth living in. CHAPTER XIII. THE TABLES TURNED. Mildred had to go back for a time to Lady Dewsbury's. That lady's house and effects now lapsed to Sir Edward; but Sir Edward was abroad with his wife and children, and he begged Miss Arkell to remain in it, its mistress, until they could return. This was convenient for Mildred's plans. It afforded a change of scene for Lucy; and it gave the opportunity and time for the house in Westerbury to be renovated; in which she intended now to take up her abode. The house was Mildred's now: it came to her on the death of her brother, their father having so settled it; but for this settlement, poor Peter had disposed of it in his necessities long ago. Charlotte Arkell married, and departed with her husband, Captain Anderson, for India, taking Sophy with her. The paying over her marriage portion of a thousand pounds--a very poor portion beside what she once might have expected--further crippled the resources of Mr. Arkell; and things seemed to be coming to a crisis. And Travice? Travice succumbed. Hardly caring what became of him, he allowed himself to be baited--badgered--by his mother into offering himself to one of the "great brazen milkmaids." From the hour of Lucy's departure from the city, she let him have no peace, no rest. One day--and it was the last feather in the scale, the little balance necessary to weigh it down--Mr. Arkell summoned his son to a private interview. It was only what Travice had been expecting. "Travice, what is your objection to Miss Fauntleroy?" "I can't bear the sight of her," returned Travice, curling his lips contemptuously. "Can you, sir?" Mr. Arkell smiled. "There are some who would call her a fine woman, Travice: she is one."