Beauchamp smiled as he read Roma's sisterly little letter. Then, not without reluctance, he put it aside and took up Mrs Eyrecourt's. The first part was pretty much what he had expected, or at least feared. She began by saying that the news of his engagement had so completely taken her by surprise that she really did not know what to say--perhaps, as he had so entirely avoided consulting her in this most important step, the less she said the better--after which preamble, as might have been expected, she went on to say a great deal. She did not write unkindly or coldly, she was most careful in the few allusions she could not avoid making to his fiancee, to say nothing exaggerated or in bad taste--nothing which could arouse his masculine spirit of contradiction or defiance. Such _as_ it was, and judged "according to the lights" of the woman who had written it and the man to whom it was written, it was by no means a bad letter, hardly even a selfish or one-sided or "wholly worldly" production. The first vehemence of Gertrude's wrath had been expended on poor Roma, a convenient safety-valve, and, thanks to her sympathy and patience, had considerably subsided before Mrs Eyrecourt had arrived at pen and paper. So her brother was fain to confess "there was a good deal of truth in what Gertrude said," and he sighed quite pathetically as he came to this conclusion. Only, and he brightened up again at this, she had not yet seen Eugenia; no doubt once she did so it would be all right. Miss Laurence had but to show herself, and the victory would be achieved; she would find no resistance--it would be a case of simply "walking over the ground" of Mrs Eyrecourt's prejudices. For Gertrude was not a small woman in the sense of any petty jealousy of another's attractions. She was nearly as sensitive as Beauchamp himself to beauty, and upon this he determined to trade. "I shall not attempt defending myself or the wisdom of what I have done," he reflected. "I shall say nothing at all but that she must wait till she sees Eugenia. Then if she takes a fancy to her she will make a pet of her, enjoy taking her out and all that sort of thing, and it will all be as smooth sailing as possible. Of course Eugenia will throw herself completely into my side of the house, and not bother about Wareborough. That is the beauty of marrying a girl who has seen nothing and is better than her surroundings." So, sanguinely mused Captain Chancellor, and all the while there was news at the end of his sister's letter which had escaped his observation, news which was to alter the whole colour of his future, which, so far as regarded Mrs Eyrecourt's friendly feelings to Eugenia, could not possibly have come at a worse time. He thought he had read it all, but, taking it up again, he saw that there was a lengthy postscript, written hurriedly, and here and there almost illegibly.