Entirely absorbed by her own immediate plans--plans which had occupied her busy mind from the day when the contents of Lord Gillingham’s will startled her into the consciousness that she must do something for herself, or a decent and obscure dowagerhood would be her only portion--absorbed, I repeat, with her own cares, to the extent of troubling herself but little with the well-being even of her children, Lady Millicent, till the day when her plans were ripe for commencement, and the hour had struck when law-proceedings, with the object of setting aside her father’s will, could be entered upon, had never deemed it incumbent on her to allow her daughters more than a passing glimpse at London and its pleasures. For this seeming neglect she had her answer ready, when Lady Guernsey, or old Sir Richard Pemberton, two of the few amongst her acquaintances who ever ventured to put in a word for the young people at the Castle, suggested that a little change was good for everyone, and that both Rhoda and Kate would be probably advantaged by a moderate amount of amusement, as well as by better masters than were procurable either at Leigh or Gawthorpe. “Young ladies in these days,” Lady Millicent would say, “learn quite soon enough, without their parents putting themselves out of the way to teach them the lesson, that the country is a bore, and that without perpetual excitement life hangs terribly heavy on their hands. For _my_ part--people may think me selfish if they like, but I honestly confess that the coming out of my girls is a ceremony which, for their sakes as well as my own, I shall be glad to put off to the latest possible period.” “But in the mean time,” said their outspoken champion, “how are you preparing them, my dear Lady Millicent, for the part they are to play? I am afraid that poor dear Rhoda--(I may talk without scruple of _her_, because, as you know, I admire her so much, and have such a real affection for her)--I am sadly afraid that Rhoda, with all her beauty, will be what my boys call _nowhere_. She has not an idea, poor child, no, not the very slightest, _de se faire valoir_. Girls with less than half her good looks would make their way twice as well from the mere fact that Rhoda is simply good and shy and unaffected, and knows no more than my toy-terrier does how to make the most of herself.”