“By no means. I am hoping that she will see now just what she ought to be doing herself, and that she may be induced to take up her duties,” said Lady Eridge. “As it is, she spends far too much time away from home. If she found an interest in her husband’s pleasures she would not find so much temptation to go abroad and to town.” “Somehow it doesn’t seem natural to expect her to take an interest in making catalogues, and work of that sort,” said Rhoda. “She is so brilliant, so--so lively, that I’m sure she would look upon such occupations as too dry for her.” “Since they are not too dry for you, why should they be for her?” “Well, I was always a staid, quiet person, not a bit like Lady Sarah.” The marchioness looked at her keenly, and Rhoda blushed. “Do you think,” suggested the girl in a hesitating manner, “that it is right for me to do what I am doing? It seemed so natural, when I first came, and found Sir Robert rather helpless in the midst of the notes that he couldn’t read, to take up the easy and pleasant work of helping him, that I fell into it without, perhaps, considering whether I was not taking too much upon myself. Now I begin already to realise that my position is a little difficult, and to wonder whether I ought to go away.” The old lady laid her hand impressively upon the girl’s arm. “No, my dear, you are to stay,” she said earnestly. “I was delighted to see you yesterday, and again to-day, and to believe more and more that we have found in you just the link which has been wanting. You have a mission in that household, Miss Pembury, a delicate one perhaps, but one that I am sure you will perform in the most efficient manner.” “Oh, no, no,” cried Rhoda. “I am not so ambitious. And indeed I would much rather retire into the background altogether.” Lady Eridge interrupted her. “You will not hesitate, I am sure,” she said, “to give up your own wishes when you realise what a useful office you could perform if you could succeed in drawing these two nearer together.” “I don’t think you quite realise, Lady Eridge,” replied Rhoda earnestly, “the difficulty of interfering in any way between husband and wife.” “I shouldn’t call it interference.” “But that’s what it must come to,” persisted Rhoda. “And the task requires a great deal more tact and cleverness than I possess. Lady Sarah is cleverer than I am, and she is more likely to do what she pleases with me, than I am to make her do anything she doesn’t care to do of her own free will.” But obstinacy was a trait which Lady Sarah had inherited from her mother, and the Marchioness went on: “I don’t want you to preach to her, or anything of that kind. It is by example that I want you to lead her back to her duty.” Rhoda shook her head. “Indeed you’re asking too much of me, Lady Eridge, and I couldn’t undertake anything of the sort. My only fear is that I shall soon find my present modest position in the household too difficult for me, and that I shall have to go away.”