"Yes, it is better 'cousin'. But there is no need to 'keep from' me. I used to see young Filmer and you driving and walking together, and as I have my eyes, and my senses, I may say, as Corporal Nym said in a delicate matter, 'There must be conclusions!' Well, I cannot tell!" Then Adriana opened her heart. This kindly brusque woman had evidently in the past suffered something from Harry's mother. That made an instant sympathy between them; perhaps, indeed, Alida had divined the trouble, and had told her own experience to induce Adriana's confidence. At any rate, she gave it freely. She made nothing better, and nothing worse, as regarded Mrs. Filmer's opposition; but she did unconsciously idealize Harry, and she did make excuses for his pusillanimity. Miss Alida was disposed to encourage this attitude. In the first place, she found it agreeable to be in opposition to Mrs. Filmer. In the second, she had set her wishes on this union of the two branches of her family. In the third, she had been pleasantly impressed by Harry's face and manner. She, therefore, encouraged Adriana's apologies. She said, in the present day it was a wonder to find a young man disposed to put the welfare of his family before his own gratification; and though she admitted Harry to have been prominently "gay," she considered his attitude as natural an expression of disappointment as Adriana's gloomy melancholy had been. "You went to the house of mourning, Adriana," she continued, "and Harry went to the house of feasting; and, my dear, I boldly affirm that in some cases the house of mourning is just as selfish and wicked as the house of feasting. When did you hear from Rose? Has she written to you lately?" "Yes; but her letters are different. They are not less kind; but they are less confidential." "Well, I admire that she writes at all. When I was a girl I durst no more have written to a person whom my mother did not approve than I durst have lifted the fire in my hands. Does she say anything about Antony?" "Sometimes she fills her letters with Antony; again, she never names him. Her letters have a strange tone, I may say, an indiscreetness that amazes me."