"That's exactly what she didn't want."
"I mean as a quite separate incident," said Mrs. Gosselin.
"I loathed their artifice, harmless as it was!" her son observed.
Mrs. Gosselin for a moment made no answer; then she turned away from the fire, into which she had been pensively gazing, with the ejaculation, "Poor dear Guy!"
"I can't for the life of me see that he's to be pitied."
"He'll marry Charlotte Firminger."
"If he's such an ass as that, it's his own affair."
"Bessie Whiteroy will bring it about."
"What has she to do with it?"
"She wants to get hold of him."
"Then why will she marry him to another woman?"
"Because in that way she can select the other—a woman he won't care for. It will keep him from taking some one that's nicer."
Hugh Gosselin stared—he laughed aloud. "Lord, mamma, you're deep!"
"Indeed I am. I see much more."
"What do you see?"
