“But do you know, my Georgiana,” Mrs. Lammle resumed presently, “that there is something suspicious in your enthusiastic sympathy with Alfred’s tenderness?”

“Good gracious no, I hope not!”

“Doesn’t it rather suggest,” said Mrs. Lammle archly, “that my Georgiana’s little heart is⁠—”

“Oh don’t!” Miss Podsnap blushingly besought her. “Please don’t! I assure you, Sophronia, that I only praise Alfred, because he is your husband and so fond of you.”

Sophronia’s glance was as if a rather new light broke in upon her. It shaded off into a cool smile, as she said, with her eyes upon her lunch, and her eyebrows raised:

“You are quite wrong, my love, in your guess at my meaning. What I insinuated was, that my Georgiana’s little heart was growing conscious of a vacancy.”