ously of the elder daughter. There are only two
daughters -- nice, old-fashioned girls, brought up by a
nice, old-fashioned mother. The mother was the
younger daughter of Lord Dunsmuir, and the Dunsmuirs
were friends of the Guthries -- I mean of my
husband's people -- since the year one. Their London
house is in Grosvenor Square. When I call Maisie
Trepell a girl, I do not mean that she is so very much
younger than my son as to make the thought of such a
marriage absurd. She is nearer thirty than twenty,
and he is forty-six."

"Is she the young lady who came to stay with you
some time ago?" asked Mrs. Otway.

She was so much surprised, in a sense so much disturbed,
by this unexpected confidence that she really
hardly knew what she was saying. She had never
thought of Major Guthrie as a marrying man. For
one thing, she had frequently had occasion to see him,
not only with her own daughter, but with other girls,
and he had certainly never paid them any special attention.
But now she did remember vividly the fact
that a young lady had come and paid quite a long visit
here before Easter. But she remembered also that
Major Guthrie had been away at the time.

"Yes, Maisie came for ten days. Unfortunately,
Alick had to go away before she left, for he had taken
an early spring fishing with a friend. But I thought --
in fact, I rather hoped at the time -- that he was very
much disappointed."

"Yes, he naturally must have been, if what you say
is----" and then she stopped short, for she did not like
to say "if what you say is true," so "if what you say is
likely to come to pass," she ended vaguely.

[[160]]

p159 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p160w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p161

v?