'You will have delicious weather,' continued Mary. 'September, and the
beginning of October, is the nicest time of the year. If I were going
honeymooning it is just the time of year I would choose.'

'I wish you were, Mary,' said Beatrice.

'So do not I, dear, till I have found some decent sort of a body to
honeymoon along with me. I won't stir out of Greshamsbury till I have
sent you off before me, at any rate. And where will you go, Augusta?'

'We have not settled that,' said Augusta. 'Mr Moffat talks of Paris.'

'Who ever heard of going to Paris in September?' said the Lady
Alexandrina.

The Lady Alexandrina was not pleased to find how completely the
doctor's niece took upon herself to talk, and sit, and act at
Greshamsbury as though she was on a par with the young ladies of the
family. That Beatrice should have allowed this would not have
surprised her; but it was to be expected that Augusta would have shown
better judgment.

'These things require some tact in their management; some delicacy when
high interests are at stake,' said she; 'I agree with Miss Thorne in
thinking that, in ordinary circumstances, with ordinary people,
perhaps, the lady should have her way. Rank, however, has its
drawbacks, Miss Thorne, as well as its privileges.'

'I should not object to the drawbacks,' said the doctor's niece,
'presuming them to be of some use; but I fear I might fail in getting