She feared--desperately feared--that Elizabeth had given her heart away.

And as she agreed with Philip that it would not be a seemly or tolerable marriage for Elizabeth, she would, in the natural course of things, both for Elizabeth's sake and the family's, have tried to keep the unseemly suitor at a distance.

But here he was, planted somehow in the very midst of their life, and she, making feeble efforts day after day to induce him to root himself there still more firmly.

Sometimes indeed she would try to press alternatives on Philip.

But Philip would not have them.