uietly.

"Indeed!" he remarked politely. "Yes; it is a matter, perhaps, which
I should have discussed with you before. I am fully aware of the
right you have---- I would not, I mean, have failed----"

"Oh, my son!" she protested, "I am sure you have always been most
correct."

"I have tried to be," he said simply. "If I have said nothing to
you, it has been because I wished to be cautious, not to commit
myself, to be very sure----"

"Of the lady's affection, do you mean?"

"Ah, can one ever be sure of that? No; I mean rather of my own
attitude, of my own situation. It has always seemed to me that
marriage is a very great undertaking, a thing to be immensely
considered, not to be embarked on rashly."

"You view everything so justly!" she exclaimed. "Have you--am I to
understand that you have a particular person in view?"

He waved aside the compliment with a bland gesture, which asserted
that only his magnanimity prevented him from acknowledging its
truth.

"Surely, surely!" he said. "You are perhaps aware how immensely
I admire Miss Masters; that I have paid her very great
attention--marked attention, I may say?"

"I observed something of the kind at Lucerne. I did not know if it
had continued; sometimes I thought so. Have you proposed to her?"

"No," he said slowly; "I have not yet proposed to her. Naturally, I
wished to consult you first."

"I am sure, Charles," said his mother cheerfully, "that I shall be
extremely pleased. She is a very nice girl. She is a great-niece of
Lord Hazelbury, and connected with the Marshes, and I know she will
have at least sixty thousand pounds."

He glanced across at her, frowning a little, with a certain
irritation.

"I shall not marry her for her money," he said.

"My dear boy," she retaliated, "I did not suppose you would be
mercenary; only, a little money is very desirable; and Lady Garnett
has a great deal, and Mary will certainly get her share of it."

"Ah, I don't like her," put in Charles inconsequently; "she is a
profane old woman."

"Neither do I; but one must accept her. And Mary, after all, is only
her niece."

"She has a beautiful character," he continued slowly. (This time he
was not speaking of Lady Garnett.) "I admire it more than I can say;
it has very great depths."

His mother looked up at him quickly, struck by his strenuous accent,
for which she was scarcely prepared. She had a high notion of his
character, of his ability, and was pleased,