"Yes, that is the nonsense Lady Forsyth would talk," said Jenny, " but that is not what I mean, and it is not what Dolly means. If ever Mr. Philip Forsyth is to propose, he will do so this very night; and if he does not, Sam Swynford shall to-morrow."
"Oh, that's the programme, is it?" said Walter.
"That's the programme," Jenny replied, in her pretty but emphatic way; and so the trio went down into the drawing-room, almost at the same moment that Mr. Philip Forsyth was announced.
CHAPTER XVIII.
MAN PROPOSES.
Walter Milbanke was under the impression that he was master in his own house, and his wife was clever enough to keep this belief alive. She had her own way without appearing to oppose Walter in the smallest thing.His father had made it a rule to govern his household autocratically. "Have a wife, and rule a wife," was his motto, and he instilled it into Walter, but Walter's was a far more gentle nature than that of his deceased father, and Jenny Norcott had had sense enough to discover this the very first day she was introduced to him, and on which very first day she had made up her mind to have him to propose to her, and to promptly accept him. Within twelve months of that very first day they were married.
This was ten years ago, and they had lived a happy life ever since—Jenny, a clever housekeeper, fond of society and dress, Walter decrying "that sort of thing," but enjoying it all the same, and Westbury Lodge being known among a certain set of pleasant people as a Paradise of good management and merry receptions
