'George,' cried Mrs Griffith, 'she's got her back up.' 'And the wedding's to-morrow,' he replied. 'It's most awkward, George. I've told all the Blackstable people that I've forgiven her and that Sir Herbert has written to say he wants to make my acquaintance. And I've got a new dress on purpose to go to the wedding. Oh! she's a cruel and exasperating thing, George; I never liked her. You were always my favourite.' 'Well, I do think she's not acting as she should,' replied George. 'And I'm sure I don't know what's to be done.' But Mrs Griffith was a woman who made up her mind quickly. 'I shall go up to town and see her myself, George; and you must come too.' 'I'll come up with you, mother, but you'd better go to her alone, because I expect she's not forgotten the last time I saw her.' They caught a train immediately, and having arrived at Daisy's house, Mrs Griffith went up the steps while George waited in a neighbouring public-house. The door was opened by a smart maid--much smarter than the Vicarage maid at Blackstable, as Mrs Griffith remarked with satisfaction. On finding that Daisy was at home, she sent up a message to ask if a lady could see her. The maid returned. 'Would you give your name, madam? Miss Griffith cannot see you without.' Mrs Griffith had foreseen the eventuality, and, unwilling to give her card, had written another little letter, using Edith as amanuensis, so that Daisy should at least open it. She sent it up. In a few minutes the maid came down again. 'There's no answer,' and she opened the door for Mrs Griffith to go out. That lady turned very red. Her first impulse was to make a scene and call the housemaid to witness how Daisy treated her own mother; but immediately she thought how undignified she would appear in the maid's eyes. So she went out like a lamb.... She told George all about it as they sat in the private bar of the public-house, drinking a little Scotch whisky. 'All I can say,' she remarked, 'is that I hope she'll never live to repent it. Fancy treating her own mother like that! 'But I shall go to the wedding; I don't care. I will see my own daughter married.' That had been her great ambition, and she would have crawled before Daisy to be asked to the ceremony.... But George dissuaded her from going uninvited. There were sure to be one or two Blackstable people present, and they would see that she was there as a stranger; the humiliation would be too great. 'I think she's an ungrateful girl,' said Mrs Griffith, as she gave way and allowed George to take her back to Blackstable. XII But the prestige of the Griffiths diminished. Everyone in Blackstable came to the conclusion that the new Lady Ously-Farrowham had been very badly treated by her relatives, and many young ladies said they would have done just the same in her place. Also Mrs Gray induced her husband to ask Griffith to resign his churchwardenship.