Isn't there anyone else we could go and see, or ask over here ?' 'I think it very likely Mr.Bilton will come down in a few days.' Louise received Mr.Bilton's name with moderate interest.

But she dropped the subject, and seemed to reconcile herself to domestic pleasures.
It was on the evening of this day that Emmeline received a letter which gave her much annoyance.

Her sister, Mrs.Grove, wrote thus: 'How news does get about! And what ridiculous forms it takes! Here is Mrs.Powell writing to me from Birmingham, and she says she has heard that you have taken in the daughter of some wealthy _parvenu_, for a consideration, to train her in the ways of decent society! Just the kind of thing Mrs.Powell would delight in talking about--she is so very malicious.

Where she got her information I can't imagine.

She doesn't give the slightest hint.