“It wasn’t to make a brag of his kindness--not a bit of that--but he is a kind man and a good man, Mr. Ridsdale, though I say it that shouldn’t. I have been married to me Major these forty years, and if anyone knows it I ought to be the one to know.” “Undoubtedly, Mrs. O’Shaughnessy. I for one am most ready to take the fact on your word.” “And you’d be in the right of it. A man’s wife, that’s the best judge of his character. Whatever another may say, she’s the one that knows; and if she says too much, one way or the other, sure it’s on herself it falls. But, maybe you’re not interested, Mr. Ridsdale, in an old woman’s opinions?” “I am very much interested, I assure you,” said Rollo, always polite. He kept an eye upon Lottie reading her note, but he listened to her friend (if this was her friend) with as much attention, Mrs. O’Shaughnessy always remembered, as if she had been a duchess at the least. Meanwhile Lottie read the note, which purported to come from Lady Caroline, and had a wavering C. Huntington at the bottom of the page, which was her genuine autograph. The warmth of the appeal, however, to her dear Miss Despard, to take pity on the dulness of the Deanery and come in “quietly” that evening for a little music, was not in any way Lady Caroline’s. She had consented indeed to permit herself to be sung to on Rollo’s strenuous representation of the pleasure it had given her. “You know, Aunt Caroline, you enjoyed it,” he had said; and “Yes, I know I enjoyed it,” Lady Caroline, much wavering, had replied. It would not have been creditable not to have enjoyed what was evidently such very good singing; but it was not she who wrote of the dulness of the Deanery nor who used such arguments to induce her dear Miss Despard to come. Lottie’s countenance bending over the note glowed with pleasure as Mrs. O’Shaughnessy kept up the conversation. Even with those girls who think they believe that the admiration of men is all they care for, the approbation of a woman above their own rank is always a more touching and more thorough triumph than any admiration of men. And Lottie, though she was so proud, was all humility in this respect; that Lady Caroline should thus take her up, and encourage her, praise her, invite her, went to her very heart. She almost cried over the kind words. She raised her face all softened and glowing with happiness to the anxious messenger who was listening to Mrs. O’Shaughnessy, and as their eyes met a sudden smile of such responsive pleasure and satisfaction came to Rollo’s face as translated Lottie back into the very paradise of her dreams.