"I think," observed Mrs Chadwick, after a pause, during which they had both been gazing reflectively into the fire, "that I have settled everything that was immediately pressing, and can now relieve your brother of the strain of my presence. I cannot begin anything until we are established at the Hall." Mrs Sommers looked amused. "I believe," she said, "that John is frightening you away." "He is," Mrs Chadwick admitted. "I am afraid of John. His inextinguishable courtesy chills me. How come you and John to be the children of the same parents? I don't believe you are. I believe that John is a changeling." Belle laughed. "He is our father reproduced," she said. "That disposes of my theory. Then you must be the changeling. Plainly, Miss Simpson ought to have been his sister." "She would prefer to stand in a closer relationship," Mrs Sommers said. "Yes; that's obvious. But she hasn't the ghost of a chance. She is an old maid." "She would scarcely be eligible for the position if she were not an old maid," Mrs Sommers pointed out. "She would be eligible as an unmarried woman," Mrs Chadwick argued. "There is a distinction. An unmarried woman is not of necessity an old maid." Belle allowed this. It was, indeed, irrefutable. "I see," she said. "Yes... just as my brother is a confirmed bachelor." Mrs Chadwick smiled into the flames. "I wouldn't be so positive on that head," she replied. "You should visit the schools with him, as I did to-day. I think it might shake your opinion. A man who is a confirmed bachelor has not the paternal instinct. He ought to have married ten years ago, in which event he would not now make the tea, and fuss about draughts. I think, you have been neglectful of your duty to him. Before you married you should have found him a wife." "He doesn't like the women I like," said Belle slowly. "He considers them too--" "Modern," suggested Mrs Chadwick. She stirred the fire thoughtfully. "The very modernest of modern wives would be the saving of him. If he doesn't find her soon he will be doomed to eternal bachelorhood, and develop hypochondria, and take up homeopathy." Belle laughed outright. "Poor old John?" she said, and relapsed once more into contemplative silence.