Lady Greendale was a thoroughly kind-hearted woman, but she could not forget that she herself might have made, in a worldly sense, a better match than she had; and her ambition had, since Bertha was a child, and still more since she had shown promise of exceptional good looks, been centred on her making a really good match.
Frank went up to town next day, and the Greendales followed him a week later.

They did not often meet him in society, as Frank seldom went out; but he called occasionally in the old friendly and unceremonious way.

It would have required an acute observer to see any difference in his manner to Bertha, but Lady Greendale noticed it, and the girl herself felt that, although he was no less kind and friendly, there was some impalpable change in his manner, something that she felt, though she could not define it, even to herself.
"Have you had a tiff with Major Mallett, Bertha ?" Mrs.Wilson asked one day, when she was alone with her in the drawing room.
Frank had just left, after spending an hour there.
"A tiff, Carrie?
No! What put such an idea into your head ?" "My eyes, assisted perhaps by my ears.

My dear, do you think that after being with you on the yacht last autumn, I should not notice any change in your manner to each other?
I had expected before now to have heard an interesting piece of news; and now I see that things have gone wrong somehow." "We are just as good friends as we always were," Bertha said, shortly; "every bit." "You don't mean to say that you have refused him, Bertha ?" "I don't mean to say anything of the sort.

I simply say that Major Mallett and I have always been great friends, and we are so now.
There is no one that I have a higher regard for." "Well, Bertha, I do not want to know your secrets, if you do not wish to tell me.