"But you see what sort of a woman she is, Miss Gauntlet; and, of course, you must not believe a word that she says." "How very dreadful!" "Oh; it does not mean anything. I call all those white lies. Nobody notices them. But what she said about Sir Lionel, you know--" "I really shall not think of anything she said." "But I must explain to you," said Miss Todd, in whose mind, in spite of her blushing, a certain amount of pleasure was mixed with the displeasure which Mrs. Leake's scandal had caused her. For at this moment Sir Lionel was not a little thought of at Littlebath, and among the Lucretias there assembled, there was many a one who would have felt but small regret in abandoning her maiden meditations at the instance of Sir Lionel Bertram. "But I must explain to you. Sir Lionel does come to see me very often; and I should think there was something in it--or, rather, I shouldn't be surprised at others thinking so--only that I am quite sure that he's thinking of somebody else." "Is he?" asked Adela, perhaps not with a great deal of animation. "Yes; and I'll tell you who that somebody else is. Mind, I shouldn't say anything about it if I wasn't sure; that is almost sure; for one never can be quite sure about anything." "Then I don't think one ought to talk about people." "Oh, that's all very well. But then, at such a place as Littlebath, one would have to hold one's tongue altogether. I let people talk of me, and so I talk about them. One can't live without it, my dear. But I don't say things like Mrs. Leake." "I'm sure you don't." "But now about Sir Lionel; can't you guess who it is?" "How should I, Miss Todd? I don't know a person in Littlebath except you and Miss Baker." "There; now you have guessed it; I knew you would. Don't say I told you." "Miss Baker marry Sir Lionel!" "Yes, Miss Baker marry Sir Lionel! and why not? Why shouldn't she? and why shouldn't he? I think it would be very wise. I think those sort of marriages often make people very happy." "Do you think he loves her?" said Adela, whose ideas of marriage were of very primitive description. "Well, I don't see why he shouldn't; that is in a sort of a way. He won't write poetry about her eyebrows, if you mean that. But I think he'd like her to keep his house for him; and now that Caroline is going away, I think she'd like to have some one to live with. She's not born to be a solitary wild beast as I am." Adela was surprised, but she had nothing to say. She was aware of no reason which it suited her to allege why Miss Baker should not marry Sir Lionel Bertram. Had she been asked before, she would have said that Miss Baker seemed settled in her maiden life; and that she was but little likely to be moved by the civil speeches of an old military beau. But silence was perhaps the more prudent, and, therefore, she said nothing.