All the same, she wondered that he should desire to marry an iceberg, and Donna Inez, with her silent tongue and cold smiles, was little else.

However, as Frank Random was the chief party concerned in the love-making--for Donna Inez was merely passive--there was no more to be said.
Sometimes Hope came to dine at the Pyramids, and on these occasions Mrs.Jasher was present in her character of chaperon.

As Miss Kendal was helping the widow to marry Professor Braddock, she in her turn did her best to speed Archie's wooing.

Certainly the young couple were engaged and there was no understanding to be brought about.

Nevertheless, Mrs.
Jasher was a useful article of furniture to be in the room when they were together, for Gartley, like all English villages, was filled with scandalmongers, who would have talked, had Hope and Lucy not employed Mrs.Jasher as gooseberry.