"You can set your mind at ease, for nothing is further from the thoughts of Lady Greendale than re-marriage.

She was very happy with her husband." "The more reason for her marrying again," the Colonel said.

"A woman who has been happy with her husband is apt to get the idea into her head that every man will make a good husband; and a confoundedly mistaken idea it is.

She is much more likely to marry again than the woman who has had a hard time of it." "Well, you may be right there, Colonel, but putting aside my conviction that Lady Greendale has no idea of marrying again, is the fact that at present all her thoughts are occupied by her daughter.

She is not at all what you would call a managing mother, but I am sure that she has set her heart on Bertha's making a good match, and that the fear that she will succumb to some penniless younger son or other unsuitable partner is at present the dominant feeling in her mind.