her often no no not very often i think when she was hero last answered mrs she was trying hard to remember but she was a little confused and agitated first by the vehemence and now by the sadness of her husband s manner she had a good memory for small events but the meetings in question had taken place more than a year before and it was slightly to recall them accurately he called here once � i think it was only once � when you were away in july and we met him again at the afterward there he talked a good deal to elizabeth oh well said the who found this piece of information decidedly that does not amount to very much you contradicted it all to mrs i suppose yes i spoke very strongly answered mrs but you see for a long while i have not had elizabeth s full confidence the was always disposed to advance pretty rapidly to the of his niece he could hardly mrs believe that she would lend in any way to work oat an evil destiny for if i know anything of elizabeth ho said quickly she would soon let mr know he was making a considerable mistake if he spoke to her on this subject i can not pretend to say what elizabeth might do answered mrs rather stiffly she was now and then somewhat jealous of her husband s confidence in his niece i only know that this report is most to me well said the influenced by three � first by the of fighting against his fate however unpleasant that fate might be secondly by the sense that he and his wife were beginning to tread on rather dangerous ground and by a growing desire for bis hot bath � well it is a nuisance but i dare say people will forget the whole thing in a few days i dare say mrs made the most of it there i really am so stiff i must go don t vex yourself about it any more i ll think it over and we ll talk about it some other time oh i way he added turning back for a moment just as he was going out of the study door can t we have dinner a quarter of an hour sooner chapter in l opinion dispose do � la la justice et le qui est lo du mrs was not naturally of a disposition and when the progress of events was not altogether as rapid as she desired she had a strong inclination to help it forward with a private she thoroughly enjoyed the exercise of personal power which she was sensible of in thus hurrying conclusions and having an ingenious mind she generally found convincing arguments for proving that her interference was both necessary and legitimate it is a great temptation to women of a certain temperament to play freely with the souls of their acquaintances and to try to force the hand of destiny concerning them by carefully the tricks they lose and rather counting up those they take these good ladies contrive generally to create both in their own minds and in the minds of the an impression of continuous and remarkable success in the playing of their rather dangerous game mrs frank had watched the course of elizabeth and s friendship with sincere interest it had supplied a certain element of refined excitement in her daily life which she keenly mrs she had continually been aware of the situation she expected it would develop but though to be growing somewhat and though elizabeth at times was restless and capricious mrs frank had candidly to confess that the situation did not develop she began to get a little impatient it seemed to her they must have drunk the cup of friendship pretty well to the and she was convinced that in the case of a friendship between a man and a woman love is at the bottom of the cup just as surely as truth is at the bottom of the well mrs frank wanted something to happen she really quite yawned for a change of scene no sooner had she fairly acknowledged her own sense of in face of the present state of things than the most excellent reasons for doing her best to alter that state of things began to crowd in upon her for some time past she had been conscious that elizabeth s intimacy with had provoked a good deal of comment people observed rather curiously upon the fact than whenever they called upon elizabeth that young mr was sure to be there one or two people had asked mrs frank point blank whether there was anything in it and when she answered in a vague and airy manner had put up their eyebrows with an appearance of slight surprise one excellent and well old lady who propriety as decidedly as she scandal had intimated so that she considered the connection a peculiar one that mrs frank felt a growing conviction regarding the absolute duty of prompt interference had decided long ago that elizabeth a in black and white must again she had gone f and decided that she must marry she thought they would suit admirably and be very happy together elizabeth s superfluous would be nicely by s philosophic calm while ho would bo stimulated to greater earnestness of purpose by his wife s strong and ardent sympathies it was a charming arrangement undoubtedly and there was just that of malice about the conception of it which made it specially attractive to s mind she could not forgive s apparent indifference to love and marriage his perfect from all those daily cares and which seem to bo the necessary result of the close relationship of two imperfect human creatures she felt it would be wonderfully refreshing to reduce him to the ordinary level to see him chained to the 