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My father is too well-bred to speak to a lady while his attention is absorbed by a fowl. He finished the second wing, and then he asked if "Philip was engaged to be married." "I am not quite sure," Mrs. Staveley confessed. "Then, my dear friend, we will wait till we are sure." "But, Mr. Dunboyne, there is really no need to wait. I suppose your son comes here, now and then, to see you?"
It seems to me that his time is so heavy on his hands that he will almost have to hang himself." "I'm sure I can't tell," said Lady Staveley, who was not so perfect an actor as her guest. "I do think gentlemen in the house in the morning always look so unfortunate. You have been endeavouring to make yourself agreeable, but you know you've been yawning."
This Colonel Staveley afterwards became General Sir Charles Staveley, and he it was who first recommended Gordon, when quite a young captain in China, to take command of that army for which he did so much, and with which he acquired such renown.
Lady Mason had already told to Mrs. Orme all that had passed in the drawing-room before dinner, and Sir Peregrine had determined that he would consult Mrs. Orme as to that matter regarding Miss Staveley. He did not think much of her refusal. Young ladies always do refuse at first. On the day but one following this there came another visit from Mr.
"I shall be off in a day or two at the furthest all the same," said Graham. "And you are to drink tea down stairs to-night. I'll come and fetch you as soon as we're out of the dining-room. I can assure you that your first appearance after your accident has been duly announced to the public, and that you are anxiously expected." And then Staveley left him. So he was to meet Madeline that evening.
Nothing could be more proper than her allusion to the Staveleys; and altogether the letter was just what it ought to be. Nevertheless it made him unhappy and irritated him. Was it well that he should marry a girl whose father was "indeed very bad, but especially about his shoes?" Staveley had told him that connection would be necessary for him, and what sort of a connection would this be?
"Until your marriage I think of settling on you a thousand a year; but it would add to my happiness if I thought it likely that you would marry soon. Now may I ask of whom were you thinking?" Peregrine paused for a second or two before he made any reply, and then he brought it out boldly. "I was thinking of Madeline Staveley."
Graham, mamma, if you speak of goodness." "I'm sure I don't know," said Lady Staveley, very much put beside herself. "I wish there were no such things as young men at all. There's Augustus making a fool of himself." And she walked twice the length of the room in an agony of maternal anxiety.
She therefore had no objection to leave Peregrine alone with her one ewe-lamb, and therefore the opportunity which he sought was at last found. "I shall be leaving Noningsby to-morrow, Miss Staveley," he said one day, having secured an interview in the back drawing-room in that happy half-hour which occurs in winter before the world betakes itself to dress.
A softer-hearted man than Judge Staveley, or one who could make himself more happy in making others happy, never sat on the English bench. Was not this a gallant young fellow before him, gallant and clever, of good honest principles, and a true manly heart? Was he not a gentleman by birth, education, and tastes? What more should a man want for a son-in-law?
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