It was a disappointment, after having made up his mind in this way, to see no sign of Suzette's presence in the drawing-room at the Grove. Mrs. Mornington was sitting in the verandah with her inevitable work-basket, just as he had found her a fortnight before, when her brother's advent at Marsh House and the dance at the Grove were still in the future. She received him with her accustomed cordiality, but she did not ask him what he thought of her niece, though he was dying to be questioned. An unwonted shyness prevented his beginning the subject. He sat meekly sustaining a conversation about the parish, the wrongs and rights of the last clerical squabble, till his patience could hold out no longer. "I hope General Vincent likes Matcham," he said at last, not daring to touch nearer to the subject which absorbed his thoughts. "Oh yes, _he_ likes the place well enough. He has lived his life, and can amuse himself with his poultry-yard, and will potter about with the hounds now and then when the cub-hunting begins. But I don't know how it will suit _her_." "You think Miss Vincent would prefer a livelier place?" "Of course she would prefer it. The question is, will she put up with this? She has never lived in an English village, though she has lived in out-of-the-way places in India; but, then, that was camp life, adventure, the sort of thing a girl likes. Her father idolizes her, and has taken her about everywhere with him since she left the Sacré Cœur at fourteen years of age. She has lived at Plymouth, at York, at Lucknow. She has had enough adulation to turn a wiser head than hers." "And yet--so far as a man may venture to judge within the compass of an hour--I don't think her head has been turned," said Allan, growing bolder. "That's as may be. She has a clever little way of seeming wiser than she is. The nuns gave her that wise air, I think. They have a wonderfully refining effect upon their pupils. Do you think her good-looking?" "Good-looking is an odious epithet to apply to such a girl. She is exquisitely pretty." "I'm glad you admire her. Yes, it is a dainty kind of prettiness, ain't it? Exquisite is far too strong a word; but I think she is a little superior to the common run of English girls." "I hope she may be able to endure Matcham. After all, the country round is tolerably interesting." "Oh, I believe she will put up with it for her father's sake, if he is happy here. Only no doubt she will miss the adulation." "She must not be allowed to miss it. All the young men in the neighbourhood will be her worshippers." Mrs. Mornington shrugged her shoulders, pursed up her lips, and made a long slashing cut in a breadth of substantial calico.