Then the subject for that moment dropped, but Florence was astonished to find that her mother could talk about it, not only without reference to Harry Annesley, but also without an apparent thought of Mountjoy Scarborough; and it was distressing to her to think that her mother should pretend to feel that she, her own daughter, should be free to receive the advances of another suitor. As she reflected it came across her mind that Harry was so odious that her mother would have been willing to accept on her behalf any suitor who presented himself, even though her daughter, in accepting him, should have proved herself to be heartless. Any alternative would have been better to her mother than that choice to which Florence had determined to devote her whole life. "Mamma," she said, going back to the subject on the next day, "if I am to stay here for three weeks longer--" "Yes, my dear, you are to stay here for three weeks longer." "Then somebody must say something to Mr. Anderson." "I do not see who can say it but you yourself. As far as I can see, he has not misbehaved." "I wish you would speak to my uncle." "What am I to tell him?" "That I am engaged." "He would ask me to whom, and I cannot tell him. I should then be driven to put the whole case in his hands, and to ask his advice. You do not suppose that I am going to say that you are engaged to marry that odious young man? All the world knows how atrociously badly he has behaved to your own cousin. He left him lying for dead in the street by a blow from his own hand; and though from that day to this nothing has been heard of Mountjoy, nothing is known to the police of what may have been his fate;--even stranger, he may have perished under the usage which he received, yet Mr. Annesley has not thought it right to say a word of what had occurred. He has not dared even to tell an inspector of police the events of that night. And the young man was your own cousin, to whom you were known to have been promised for the last two years." "No, no!" said Florence. "I say that it was so. You were promised to your cousin, Mountjoy Scarborough." "Not with my own consent." "All your friends,--your natural friends,--knew that it was to be so. And now you expect me to take by the hand this young man who has almost been his murderer!" "No, mamma, it is not true. You do not know the circumstances, and you assert things which are directly at variance with the truth." "From whom do you get your information? From the young man himself. Is that likely to be true? What would Sir Magnus say as to that were I to tell him?" "I do not know what he would say, but I do know what is the truth. And can you think it possible that I should now be willing to accept this foolish young man in order thus to put an end to my embarrassments?"