"I am not going to treat him badly. You are very unkind. _He_ would not be unkind to me. I wish he were here, I do! He would not let you be so cruel." And Lettice went off into a paroxysm of sobbing, while Miss Carr realised sorrowfully that she had made a false move. "My dear child, you know very well I don't mean to be cruel. I am too anxious for your happiness. Lettice, Mr Newcome is very much in love just now, and is excited and moved out of himself; but though he may not be less devoted to you, in the course of time he will naturally fall back into his old quiet ways. When you think of a life with him, you must not imagine him as he was yesterday, but as you have seen him at home any time during the last three years. You have mimicked him to me many times over, my dear. Can you now feel content to spend your life in his company?" It was of no use. Lettice would do nothing but sob and cry, reiterate that everyone was unkind, that she was miserable, that it was a shame that she could not be happy like other girls, until at last Miss Carr, in despair, sent her upstairs to her bedroom, and went to rejoin Mr Bertrand. "Well?" he said, stopping short in his pacings up and down, and regarding her with an anxious gaze, "what luck?" Miss Carr gave a gesture of impatience. "Oh, none--none at all! She will do nothing but cry and make a martyr of herself. She will not acknowledge that she has made a mistake, and yet I know, I feel, it is not the right thing! You must speak to Arthur Newcome yourself to-morrow, and try to make him consent to a few months' delay." "I was thinking of that myself. I'll try for six, but he won't consent. I can't say I should myself under the circumstances. When Lettice has accepted him and cries her eyes out at the idea of giving him up, you can hardly expect the young fellow to be patient. Heigho, these daughters! A nice time of it I have before me, with four of them on my hands." Punctually at eleven o'clock next morning Arthur Newcome arrived for his interview with Mr Bertrand. They were shut up together for over half- an-hour, then Mr Bertrand burst open the door of the room where Miss Carr and his daughter were seated, and addressed the latter in tones of irritation such as she had seldom heard from those kindly lips. "Lettice, go to the drawing-room and see Mr Newcome. He will tell you what we have arranged. In ten minutes from now, come back to me here." Lettice dropped her work and glided out of the room, white and noiseless as a ghost, and her father clapped his hands together in impatience.