‘Yes, just that,’ answered Maud, with her bright enthusiasm, which found favour in the eyes of her listener. ‘After I had seen Phil, and felt what it was to have a brother of one’s very own like him, why, then I couldn’t fancy Lewis any more—I really couldn’t. And I should hate and detest to be made into a Belassis!’ ‘My dear,’ said Miss Marjory warmly, ‘I think you have judged very wisely. And after your final decision has been formally registered, your brother and I must see if we cannot find you a husband, the very counterpart of himself.’ Maud laughed, and shook her head. ‘You are very clever, Miss Marjory, and Phil is very good; but I’m afraid, with all your cleverness and goodness, you’ll never manage that.’ ‘Don’t be too sure,’ returned Miss Marjory, with a very wise, not to say mysterious, look. ‘I have a faculty for managing anything I have once set my mind upon, which may surprise you one of these days, as it has surprised wiser people before you.’ ‘You are very like a sphinx, Miss Marjory. Please condescend to tell me some more, and that more plainly.’ ‘Well, if you must know, it would not much surprise me, if, when Mr. Torwood turns up, you found him almost as much of a paragon as your pattern and idol, Phil.’ ‘Mr. Torwood! Oh, Miss Marjory, do you know him? What is he like? and when is he coming?’ ‘What a number of questions at once! You are as bad as I am, Maud. I don’t know when he is coming back, because nobody can tell when he will be well again; but I do know something about him; and his father was a very old friend of mine. I believe he takes after his father, from all I hear; and if so, my advice to you, my dear, is this: don’t engage yourself to Lewis Belassis until you have seen Torrington Torwood.’ Maud looked hard at Miss Marjory, half smiling, half perplexed. ‘I don’t quite understand you—you seem in a dreadfully match-making frame of mind. But Phil thinks so very much of your opinion, that he has made me do the same. I will take your advice, Miss Marjory.’ CHAPTER XIV. AN AGREEABLE DINNER. Maud’s birthday had come at last—the important four-and-twentieth anniversary, which completed her long minority. She had requested that there should be no great ‘fuss’ upon the day. She did not want any festivities set on foot, or a number of guests to entertain. It would be much more of a treat to her, she said, to have ‘a good long day with Phil;’ and in the evening was the necessary dinner-party, to which the Belassis household was invited, which was to be followed by the reading of Mr. Debenham’s will. Maud’s decision would be asked at the close, and it was generally understood that her mind was made up, although opinions differed as to what was the decision arrived at.