When the girl returned to the hotel, Mrs. Tramore mentioned,
before Captain Jay, who had come up to their sitting-room, that Lady
Maresfield had called. "She stayed a long time--at least it seemed
long!" laughed Mrs. Tramore.
The poor lady could laugh freely now; yet there was some grimness in
a colloquy that she had with her daughter after Bertram Jay had
departed. Before this happened Mrs. Vesey's card, scrawled over in
pencil and referring to the morrow's luncheon, was brought up to Mrs.
Tramore.
"They mean it all as a bribe," said the principal recipient of these
civilities.
"As a bribe?" Rose repeated.
"She wants to marry you to that boy; they've seen Captain Jay and
they're frightened."
"Well, dear mamma, I can't take Mr. Mangler for a husband."
"Of course not. But oughtn't we to go to the luncheon?"
"Certainly we'll go to the luncheon," Rose said; and when the affair
took place, on the morrow, she could feel for the first time that she
was taking her mother out. This appearance was somehow brought home
to every one else, and it was really the agent of her success. For
it is of the essence of this simple history that, in the first place,
that success dated from Mrs.
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