Lady Ellington considered this a moment. "But surely you had settled to have one more," she said, "the one which you postponed." "Yes, but I think we all agree now that as far as I am concerned the picture is finished." Lady Ellington was not exactly puzzled; it would be fairer to say that though she did not quite know where this led, she was quite certain it led somewhere. It was not a puzzle; it was rather a clue. So she got behind a bush, as it were, and continued firing from there. "He is a great friend of Philip's, is he not?" she said. "I suppose you will see a good deal of him after your marriage?" This sharp-shooting was frightfully trying to Madge's nerves; she never knew where the next shot might be coming from. But in that it was now quite clear to her that shooting was going on, it was the part of wisdom to defend herself. "Oh! I hope so," she said, "he is charming. I expect he will be constantly with us." This was a little disconcerting; Madge had distinctly had the best of that exchange. But she was in the beleaguered position; she felt that at any moment she might have to give in. She had a wild desire simply to leave the room, for she wanted to be alone, and to think over all that she now knew, but the clock inexorably pointed to half-past nine only, and to say she was going to bed would simply strengthen whatever idea it was in Lady Ellington's mind that prompted her questions. Maternal anxiety and solicitude, though the point of view of the mother was perhaps a little predominant, were the moving causes of them, if they were referred back to primary motives; to put it more bluntly yet, Lady Ellington merely wished for a guarantee that nothing of any sort had occurred which might, however remotely, influence the matrimonial design for her daughter which she had formed and Madge had agreed to carry out. That she had fears that things were running otherwise than smoothly--by smoothly being meant that the marriage would take place on the twenty-eighth of the month--would be an overstatement of the idea that prompted these questions, but she certainly wished for some convincing word that she need have none.