If you have chosen your line and wish to make friends here--very well--I will do what I can for you so long as you do not expect me to change my life--for which, my dear, I am grown too crotchety and too old." Marcella looked at her with dismay and a yearning she had never felt before.
"And you will never go out with me, mamma ?" There was something childlike and touching in the voice, something which for once suggested the normal filial relation.

But Mrs.Boyce did not waver.

She had long learnt perhaps to regard Marcella as a girl singularly well able to take care of herself; and had recognised the fact with relief.
"I will not go to the Court with you anyway," she said, daintily sipping her tea--"in your interests as well as mine.

You will make all the greater impression, my dear, for I have really forgotten how to behave.
Those cards shall be properly returned, of course.

For the rest--let no one disturb themselves till they must.