so anxious for it.«
    »Anxious? I haven't been anxious at all. But I dare say it's the wisest
thing she could do. I like Mutimer well enough.«
    »Alfred, I don't think he's the proper husband for Adela.«
    »Why not? There's not much chance that she'll get a better.«
    Alfred was manifestly less cheerful than usual. When Letty continued to tax
him with it he grew rather irritable.
    »Go and talk to her yourself,« he said at length. »You'll find it's all
right. I don't pretend to understand her; there's so much religion mixed up with
her doings, and I can't stand that.«
    Letty shook her head and sighed.
    »What a vile smell of candle-smoke there is here!« Alfred cried. »And the
room must be five or six degrees below zero. Let's go to the fire.«
    »I think I shall run over to Adela at once,« said Letty, as she followed him
into the hall.
    »All right. Don't be vexed if she refuses to let you in. I'll stay here with
the youngsters a bit.«
    The truth was that Alfred did feel a little uncomfortable this evening, and
was not sorry to be away from the house for a short time. He was one of those
young men who will pursue an end out of mere obstinacy, and who, through default
of imaginative power, require an event to declare itself before they can
appreciate the ways in which it will affect them. This marriage of his sister
with a man of the working class had possibly, he now felt, other aspects than
those which alone he had regarded whilst it was merely a matter for speculation.
He was not seriously uneasy, but wished his mother had been somewhat less
precipitate. Well, Adela could not be such a simpleton as to be driven entirely
counter to her inclinations in an affair of so much importance. Girls were
confoundedly hard to understand, in short; probably they existed for the purpose
of keeping one mentally active.
    Letty found Mrs. Waltham sitting alone, she too seemingly not in the best of
spirits. There was something depressing in the stillness of the house. Mrs.
Waltham had her volume of family prayers open before her; her handkerchief lay
upon it.
    »She is naturally a little - a little fluttered,« she said, speaking of
Adela. »I hoped you would look in.