For another half-hour she went on expatiating on the advantages which would accrue to Alice as a married woman from an acquaintance with her noble relatives, and endeavouring to persuade her that no better opportunity than the present would present itself.

There would be a place in Lady Midlothian's carriage, as none other of the daughters were going but Lady Jane.

Lady Midlothian would take it quite as a compliment, and a concert was not like a ball or any customary party.

An unmarried girl might very properly go to a concert under such circumstances as now existed without any special invitation.

Lady Macleod ought to have known her adopted niece better.