"If only Edward and you--and everybody would not be in such a dreadful hurry!" she said, protesting. "Seven weeks, my dear child, is enough for any trousseau. And what have you to wait for? It will suit me too, much best. If we put it off till the autumn I should be terribly busy--absolutely taken up--with Arthur's election. Sir Louis Ford tells me they cannot possibly stave off going to the country longer than November. And of course this time I shall have not only the usual Liberal gang--I shall have Coryston to fight!" "I know. It's appalling!" cried Marcia. "Can't we get him to go away?" Then she looked at her mother uneasily. "I do wish, mother, you hadn't put that notice of Arthur's meeting into the _Witness_ without consulting him. Why, you didn't even ask him, before you settled it all! Aren't you afraid of his cutting up rough?" "Not in the least! Arthur always expects me to settle those things for him. As soon as Coryston had taken that outrageous step, it was imperative that Arthur should speak in his own village. We can't have people's minds in doubt as to what _he_ thinks of Glenwilliam, with an election only five months off. I have written to him, of course, fully--without a word of reply! What he has been doing these last weeks I can't imagine!" Marcia fell into a frowning silence. She knew, alack! a great deal more than she wished to know of what Arthur had been doing. Oh, she hoped Coryston had been able to talk to him--to persuade him! Edward too had promised to see him--immediately. Surely between them they would make him hear reason, before any suspicion reached their mother? The usual pile of letters awaited Lady Coryston and Marcia on their arrival at home. But before opening hers, Lady Coryston turned to the butler. "Is Mr. Arthur here?" "Yes, my lady. He is out now, but he left word he would be in for luncheon." Lady Coryston's face lit up. Marcia did not hear the question or the answer. She was absorbed in a letter which she happened to have opened first. She read it hastily, with growing astonishment. Then, still holding it, she was hurrying away to her own sitting-room when the butler intercepted her. "There's a young lady, miss, who wants to see you. I took her to your sitting-room. She said she came from the dressmaker--something you had ordered--very particular." "Something I had ordered?" said Marcia, mystified. "I don't know anything about it." She ran up-stairs, still thinking of the letter in her hand. "I won't see her!" she said to herself, vehemently, "without Edward's leave. He has a right now to say what I shall do. It is different with Coryston. He may argue with me--and with Edward--if he pleases. But Mrs. Betts herself! No--that's too much!"