"That is not for us to say. Phoebe's father is a peculiar man, and he may have views for Phoebe of which we are ignorant. Mr. Cornwall's suit will rest with him, not with us." "Mr. Cornwall is a gentleman." "Undoubtedly; and, so far as I can judge, calculated to make a girl happy. But that is not the question." "What is the question, mother?" "Money. Fanny, what I am about to say must not pass out of this room." "Very well, mother." "Phoebe's father may say to Mr. Cornwall: 'You ask me for my daughter's hand. How much money have you got?'" "What a coarse way of putting it!" exclaimed Fanny disdainfully. "I am aware of it, but for Phoebe's sake I am trying to think it out in the way it will happen. I have never inquired into Mr. Cornwall's circumstances; but they are not very flourishing at present, are they?" "I don't think they are." "I know they are not. He and your father have had conversations which lead me to the belief that he earns just a sufficient income to keep himself comfortably." "He is very clever in his profession; and there is the future." "That is one of the things I am thinking of," said Mrs. Lethbridge, gravely: "the future. 'How much money have you got?' Phoebe's father will ask him; and when the young man answers honestly--as Mr. Cornwall is sure to do--Phoebe's father will say, 'As you have no money of your own, you come after my daughter's.' I am very much afraid of it, Fanny. I pray that there is no trouble in store for her." "Mother, you frighten me." Fanny experienced at that moment a feeling of terror at the conspiracy into which she and Fred Cornwall had entered, which was to result in Fred's unexpected appearance at Parksides with birthday presents for Phoebe. She did not dare to refer to it, so she kept the secret locked in her breast. "I do not wish to frighten you, my dear," said Mrs. Lethbridge, "and perhaps, after all, I am only raising bug-bears. Let us hope for the best." "We will," said Fanny, brightening up instantly. She was like an April day; the least glimpse of sunshine brought gladness to her. "And now, mother, just one word." "Well, my dear?" "If Mr. Cornwall proposes to Phoebe--which he will--and if she accepts him--which she will--and if he speaks to Phoebe's father, and Phoebe's father will not hear of it, what is to be done?" "My dear child, you are putting a riddle to me." "What I want to know is," said Fanny, very determinedly, "whether, if Phoebe's father refuses his consent, Phoebe ought to marry without it." She felt that she had achieved a triumph in putting it so clearly. "Would you marry without ours?" asked Mrs. Lethbridge. "Mother, be logical, as Fred Cornwall says. Did you not say yourself that the cases are different?" "Yes, I did," replied the perplexed mother. "Well, there it is, then," said Fanny; and as her mother did not speak, she relentlessly opened another broadside.