'Ah, but did she say it? Come, Lady Staveley; I know I have been a fool, but I am not a cowardly fool. If it be so;—if I have no hope, tell me at once, that I may go away. In that case I shall be better anywhere out of the county.'
'I cannot say that you should have no hope.'
'You think then that there is a chance?' and for a moment he looked as though all his troubles were nearly over.
'If you are so impetuous, Mr. Orme, I cannot speak to you. If you will sit down for a minute or two I will tell you exactly what I think about it.' And then he sat down, trying to look as though he were not impetuous. 'I should be deceiving you if I were not to tell you that she speaks of the matter as though it were all over,—as though her answer to you was a final one.'
'Ah; I knew it was so.'
'But then, Mr. Orme, many young ladies who have been at the first moment quite as sure of their decision have married the gentlemen whom they refused, and have learned to love them with all their hearts.'
'But she isn't like other girls,' said Peregrine.
'I believe she is a great deal better than many, but nevertheless she may be like others in that respect. I do not say that it will be so, Mr. Orme. I would not on any account give you hopes which I believed to be false. But if you are anxious in the matter———'
'I am as anxious about it as I am about my soul!'
'Oh fie, Mr. Orme! You should not speak in that way. But if you are anxious, I would advise you to wait.'
'And see her become the wife of some one else.'
'Listen to me, Mr. Orme. Madeline is very young. And so indeed are you too;—almost too young to marry as yet, even if my girl were willing that it should be so. But we all like you very much; and as you both are so very young, I think that you might wait with patience,—say for a year. Then come to Noningsby again, and try your fortune once more. That is my advice.'
'Will you tell me one thing, Lady Staveley?'
'What is that, Mr. Orme?'
'Does she care for any one else?'
Lady Staveley was prepared to do anything she could for her young friend except to answer that question. She did believe that Madeline cared for somebody else,—cared very much. But she did not think that any way would be opened by which that caring would be made manifest; and she thought also that if wholly ungratified by any word of intercourse that feeling would die away. Could she have told everything to Peregrine Orme she would have explained to him that his best chance lay in that liking for Felix Graham; or, rather, that as his rejection had been caused by that liking, his chance would be good again when that liking should
