"Her birth is well enough," answered Marius uneasily. "Her people have never been less than gentlefolk." He did not care to think his brother had mated too utterly beneath him, and it seemed that Susannah was making too much of it--as the matter really only interested him obliquely he would have had it taken for granted and put aside; he would have preferred to relate how he first met Aspasia in the Luxembourg gardens in Paris; Susannah could be, when she chose, a perfect listener. But she would not suffer the subject to change. "It must be difficult for her--at first," she said. "I am very curious to see her. Lavinia hath quite a pretty sound, hath it not? I wonder if she likes riding." "Ye seem very desirous to please her," smiled Marius. Susannah paused before an opulent bush bearing roses red almost to a purple tinge. "I want her to like me," she repeated. Marius looked at his cousin; certainly she was making too much of it; he could not find Rose's wife of such importance. "Why?" he asked. "Why do you want her to like you?" Miss Chressham answered with an ardent gravity. "Because I am afraid of hating her," she said; "I wish to like her before I am lured into loathing her." She pulled two roses from the stem, never heeding the thorns, and gazed intently at them. "I think you take it over heavily," replied Marius with a judicial air. "Rose was bound to marry and to marry a fortune--he would scarcely have made a love match." Marius was boyishly pompous. "We hear the lady has qualities, is as desirable as another lady with a hundred thousand pounds, and I cannot think Rose would ever let his wife interfere with him." Susannah's eyes flashed over the gorgeous blooms she held to her lips. "And you will supply sentiment for two; well, no doubt I am foolishly romantical." But the words were a mere dismissal of a subject she disdained to discuss with one who would not understand. "I think we might go now," she added; "surely it is time?" "The moments have been vastly swift!" He glanced at his watch. "Yes, they are due--shall I go straight to the lodge?" "Had you not better? My lady awaits them in the withdrawing-room. She thinks of her own home-coming, I know--a triumphal arch, villagers lining the road with flowers--and regrets this for Rose; but his commands were stern." Miss Chressham spoke rapidly. Her restless eyes and fluttering lashes showed agitation. As Marius parted from her by the lake she laughed nervously, and waved her hand to the careless youthful figure hurrying through the shrubbery. She was very glad Marius was happy; it was as pleasant to watch his eager joy in life as to survey the content of a loving dog; and as sad to see him miserable as to behold an animal in distress. Susannah had much the same faith in his Aspasia as he himself possessed. She considered him likely enough to come across his fate early--likely enough to love, to be loved, to satisfy, and be satisfied.