He had now the means of supporting a wife, and why should she be obdurate?
Nothing was said on the subject between Gertrude and her mother.
What more could Mrs.Woodward say?
It would have been totally opposed to the whole principle of her life to endeavour, by any means, to persuade her daughter to the match, or to have used her maternal influence in Norman's favour.

And she was well aware that it would have been impossible to do so successfully.
Gertrude was not a girl to be talked into a marriage by any parent, and certainly not by such a parent as her mother.

There was, therefore, nothing further to be said about it.
On.

Saturday Alaric went down, but his arrival hardly made things more pleasant.

Mrs.Woodward could not bring herself to be cordial with him, and the girls were restrained by a certain feeling that it would not be right to show too much outward joy at Alaric's success.