My friends, the Fergusons, may call to-day--I did not invite them, though I shall certainly not shut the door upon them--but they have no intention whatever of being on visiting terms at the Lodge, nor have I of asking them." "I am glad to hear it," said Miss Gascoigne--"glad to see that you have so much good taste and proper feeling, and that all my exertions in bringing you--as I hope to do to-day--for the first time into our society will not be thrown away." Christian was not a very proud woman--that is, her pride lay too deep below the surface to be easily ruffled, but she could not bear this.
"If by our 'society' you mean my husband's friends, to whom he is to introduce me, I shall be most happy always to welcome them to his house; but if you imply that I am to exclude my own--honest, worthy, honorable people, uneducated though they may be--I must altogether decline agreeing with you.

I shall do no such thing." "Shall you do, then ?" said Miss Gascoigne, after a slight pause; for she did not expect such resistance from the young, pale, passive creature, about whom, for the last few days she had rather changed her mind, and treated with a patronizing consideration, for Aunt Henrietta liked to patronize; it pleased her egotism; besides, she was shrewd enough to see that an elegant, handsome girl, married to the Master of Saint Bede's, was sure soon to be taken up by somebody; better, perhaps; by her own connections than by strangers.

So--more blandly than might have been expected--she asked, "What shall you do ?" "What seems to me--as I think it will to Dr.Grey"-- with a timid glance at him, and a wish she had found courage to speak to him first on this matter, "the only right thing I can do.

Not to drag my friends into society where they would not feel at home, and which would only look down upon them, but to make them understand clearly that I--and my husband--do not look down upon them; that we respect them, and remember their kindness.

We may not ask Mr.Ferguson to dinner--he would find little to say to University dons; and as for his wife"-- she could not forbear a secret smile at the thought of the poor dear woman, with her voluble affectionateness and her gowns of all colors, beside the stately, frigid, perfectly dressed, and unexceptionably--mannered Miss Gascoigne--"whether or not Mrs.Ferguson is invited to the series of parties that you are planning, I shall go and see her, and she shall come to see me, as often as ever I please." This speech, which began steadily enough, ended with a shaky voice and flashing eye, which, the moment it met Dr.Grey's, gravely watching her, sank immediately.
"That is," she added gently, "If my husband has no objection." "None," he said, but drew ink and paper to him, and sat down to write a note, which he afterward handed over to Christian, then addressing his sister-in-law, "I have invited Mr.and Mrs.Ferguson to dine with us-- just ourselves, as you and Maria will be out--at six o'clock to-morrow.
And oh!"-- with a weary look, as if he were not so insensible to this petty domestic martyrdom as people imagined--"do, Henrietta, let us have a little peace." It was in vain.