“And what?”

“Oh, nought! But ’tis all so disagreeable, Tracy!”

“It certainly is slightly disturbing. You had better have chosen John, in spite of all, it seems.”

She stamped angrily.

“Oh, where’s the good in being flippant?”

“My dear Lavinia, where’s the good in being anything else? The situation strikes me as rather amusing. To think of the worthy Richard so neatly overturning all my plans!”

“If it had not been for you, I might never have married him. Why did you throw them both in my way? Why did I ever set eyes on either?”

“It should have been a good match, my dear, and, if I remember rightly, no one was more alive to that fact than yourself.”