Guy disliked the fatigue of the long dinner, and rarely attended it. He was sitting in his favourite corner, when a movement made him aware that people were coming out again, and Mrs Palmer, in much smarter clothes than of old, but with an unmistakable air of Ingleby and home, came and sat down by him. "My dear Guy," she said, "you're one of the family, and I want to confide in you." Guy was not given to consider himself as one of the Palmers, but he accepted the compliment, and said-- "Is anything the matter, Cousin Susan?" "Well, yes, Guy. I think there's a great deal the matter. Indeed, perhaps it's my duty to write to Mr Matthew; but he isn't exactly considerate at a distance." Guy allowed that this might be the case. "And--my responsibilities are great with Jeanie, so much admired and an heiress. And I'm quite sure there's nothing to be gained by going out of one's own circle, especially among foreigners and Americans--people of no character at all." Guy said that this charge was rather sweeping. "Was there any American in particular?" "Yes; there is a Mr Van Brunt. He has been most attentive, and followed us about. I shouldn't be surprised if he came here. He speaks of himself as a man of fortune, and says his father has a great dry-goods store in Chicago. It doesn't sound well--a _store_ is a shop--very different from a mill. And, besides, if there's one thing I like it's constancy; and poor Godfrey at home in England--such cruel treatment for him, after that week at the Rabys." "But, Cousin Susan, it's quite as easy to inquire about a man in Chicago as in London. Of course he ought to give a reference. And as for constancy,"--Guy could not help a little smile as he spoke,--"of course Godfrey knows that Jeanie is perfectly free. Our affairs made that imperative." "Oh, my dear Guy, I'd rather trust Palmer Brothers, in difficulties, than all the dry-goods stores in America out of them. Do reason with her, my dear Guy, and plead Godfrey's cause. Jeanie is a very good girl; but, of course, she feels her independence. Couldn't Godfrey come out, and look after his own interests?" Guy was capable of hearing a good deal without committing himself. He would not promise to reason with Jeanie, nor to telegraph to Godfrey; but he agreed to interview Mr Van Brunt, and in his secret heart, he hoped that that dry-goods store in Chicago might prove to be solvent, and its owner's character and intentions clear as the day, and that his duty as "one of the family" would not be to protect Jeanie from the snares of an adventurer. There were sounds of arrival late that night, and when he came down the next morning, Jeanie waylaid him on the stairs, looking, in spite of her smart tailor-made frock and well-dressed hair, very like the shy Jeanie of the Mill House, Ingleby.