"My dear, what a lovely gown!--and how sweet you look!" "Don't talk nonsense, Waggin!--and put on this rose I've brought for you!" Waggin submitted while Marcia adorned her and gave various pats and pulls to her hair. "There!--you look ten years younger," said the girl, with her bright look, stepping back. "But where is James?" The butler stepped forward. "Mr. James will meet you at the Opera." "Oh, good!" murmured Marcia in her companion's ear. "Now we can croon." And croon they did through the long crowded way to Covent Garden. By the time the motor reached St. Martin's Lane, Waggin was in possession of all that had happened. She had long expected it, having shrewdly noted many signs of Lady Coryston's accumulating wrath. But now that "Corry," her dear "Corry," with whom she had fought so many a schoolroom fight in the days of his Eton jackets, was really disinherited, her concern was great. Tears stood in her kind eyes. "Poor Corry!" alternated in her mouth with "Your poor mother!" Sinner and judge appealed equally to her pity. Marcia meanwhile sat erect and fierce. "What else could he expect? Father _did_ leave the estates to mother--just because Corry had taken up such views--so that she might keep us straight." [Illustration: AS SHE SAW MARCIA HER FACE LIT UP] "But _afterward_! My dear, he is so young! And young men change." Lady Coryston's death was not, of course, to be mentioned--except with this awe and vagueness--scarcely to be thought of. But hotter revolutionists than Corry have turned Tories by forty. Waggin harped on this theme. Marcia shook her head. "He won't change. Mother did not ask it. All she asked was--for her sake and father's--that he should hold his tongue." A flush sprang to Waggin's faded cheek. "A _man_!--a grown man!" she said, wondering--"forbid him to speak out--speak freely?" Marcia looked anxiously at her companion. It was very seldom that Waggin betrayed so much heat. "I know," said the girl, gloomily--"'Your money or your life'--for I suppose it sounds like that. Corry would say his convictions are his life. But why 'a man,' Waggin?" She straightened her pretty shoulders. "I don't believe you'd mind if it were a woman. You don't believe in a _woman_ having convictions!" Waggin looked a little bewildered. "I'm old-fashioned, I suppose--but--" Marcia laughed triumphantly. "Why shouldn't Corry respect his mother's convictions? She wants to prove that women oughtn't to shrink from fighting for what they believe, even--" "Even with their sons?" said Waggin, tremulously. "Lady Coryston is so splendid--so splendid!" "Even with their sons!" cried Marcia, vehemently. "You take it for granted, Waggin, that they trample on their daughters!"