have you any definite reason for supposing that olive is in love with captain and that people are talking about it � i think so mamma said the girl deceived by this expression of you remember when the came here well violet was up in our room and we were showing her our dresses the conversation somehow turned on captain and when violet said that she had seen him that day as they came along in the carriage shooting with the olive burst out crying and rushed out of the room it was very awkward violet said she was very sorry and all that but yes yes dear but why was olive angry at hearing that captain went out shooting with the by muslin because it appears she had previously forbidden him to go there you know on account of mrs and what happened then well that s the worst of it i don t mean to say it was all olive s fault i think she must have lost her head a little for she sent over that evening to the with a note telling captain that he must come at once and explain it was eleven o clock at night and they had a long talk through the window mrs did not speak for some moments the fire was falling into masses of white ash and she thought vaguely of putting on some more turf then her attention was caught by the withering in the flower glasses then by the pasture lands then by the branches of the chestnut trees swinging against the grey dead sky but tell me she said at last for of course it is important that i should know � do you think that olive is really in love captain she told me as we were going to bed the other night mamma that she never could care for anyone else and � and and what dear i don t like to betray my sister s confidence answered � but i m sure i had better tell you all she told me that he had kissed her many times and no later than yesterday in the indeed you did very well to let me know of this said mrs becoming as earnestly inclined as her daughter i am sorry that olive was so foolish i must speak to her about it by muslin this must not occur again i think that if yon were to tell her to come down here oh no mamma olive would know at that i had been speaking about her affairs you must promise me to make only an use of what i have told you of course � of course my dear no one shall ever know what has passed between us you can depend upon me i will not speak to olive till i get a favourable opportunity and now i have to go and see after the servants are you going upstairs on tense with the importance of the explanation this dismissal fell not a little but she was glad that she had been able to induce her mother to consider the matter seriously a few minutes passed almost unconsciously mrs threw two of turf on the fire and resumed her thinking her first feeling of resentment against her eldest daughter had vanished and she now thought solely of the difficulty she was in and how she could best herself from it so olive was foolish enough to allow captain to kiss her in the mrs murmured to herself the morality of the question interested her profoundly she had never allowed anyone to kiss her before she was married and she was full of pity and for the future of a young girl who could thus compromise herself but in olive s love for captain mrs was concerned only so far as it affected the labour and time that would have to be expended in persuading her to cease to care for by muslin him that this was the right thing to do mrs did not for a moment doubt her daughter was a beautiful girl would probably be the of hie season therefore to allow her at nineteen to marry a thousand a year captain would be mrs thought to prove herself incapable if not criminal in the performance of the most important duty of her life mrs trembled when she thought of the sending of the letter if the story were to get wind in it might wreck her hopes of the therefore to tell to leave the house would be fatal things must be managed gently very gently olive must be talked to how far her heart was engaged in the matter must be found out and she must be made to see the folly the madness of her chance of winning a for the sake of a thousand captain and good heavens the what would they say of her mrs were such a thing to occur mrs turned from the thought in horror and then out of the soul of the old arose full the the whose light and glory is dependent on that of the fixed star around which she at this moment olive her hands filled with into the room oh here you are mamma told me you wanted a few and flowers to up the room i hope you haven t got your feet wet my dear if you have you had better go up at once and change olive was now more than ever like her father by muslin her shoulders had grown wider and the head and scarlet lips had gained a summer and beauty no i am not wet she said looking down at her boots it isn t but if it were would send me out all the same where is she now y up in her room reading i suppose she never out of it i thought when we came home from school the 