But those horrible words of her daughter were ringing in her ears, and she did not know how to conduct herself.
"Of course I came as soon as he told me," she said.
"And you will be a mother to me ?" demanded Lizzie.
Poor Lady Fawn! There was enough of maternity about her to have enabled her to undertake the duty for a dozen sons' wives,--if the wives were women with whom she could feel sympathy.

And she could feel sympathy very easily; and was a woman not at all prone to inquire too curiously as to the merits of a son's wife.

But what was she to do after the caution she had received from Mrs.Hittaway?
How was she to promise maternal tenderness to a vixen and a liar?
By nature she was not a deceitful woman.

"My dear," she said, "I hope you will make him a good wife." It was not very encouraging, but Lizzie made the best of it.

It was her desire to cheat Lady Fawn into a good opinion, and she was not disappointed when no good opinion was expressed at once.