Page:Orley Farm (Serial Volume 10).pdf/24

 'Of whom were you thinking, Peregrine? May I ask—if it be not too close a secret?' And then again there was a pause, during which Peregrine emptied his glass and filled it again. He had no objection to tall to his grandfather about Miss Staveley, but he felt ashamed of having allowed the matter to escape him in this sort of way. 'I will tell you why I ask, my boy,' continued the baronet. 'I am going to do that which many people will call a very foolish thing.'

'You mean about Lady Mason.'

'Yes; I mean my own marriage with Lady Mason. We will not talk about that just at present, and I only mention it to explain that before I do so, I shall settle the property permanently. If you were married I should at once divide it with you. I should like to keep the old house myself, till I die'

'Oh, sir!'

'But sooner than give you cause of offence I would give that up.'

'I would not consent to live in it unless I did so as your guest.'

'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.'

'Then, my boy, you were thinking of the prettiest girl and the best-bred lady in the county. Here's her health;' and he filled for himself a bumper of claret. 'You couldn't have named a woman whom I should be more proud to see you bring home. And your mother's opinion of her is the same as mine. I happen to know that;' and with a look of triumph he drank his glass of wine, as though much that was very joyful to him had been already settled.

'Yes,' said Peregrine mournfully, 'she is a very nice girl; at least I think so.'

'The man who can win her, Peregrine, may consider himself to be a lucky fellow. You were quite right in what you were saying about money. No man feels more sure of that than I do. But if I am not mistaken Miss Staveley will have something of her own. I rather think that Arbuthnot got ten thousand pounds.'

'I'm sure I don't know, sir,' said Peregrine; and his voice was by no means as much elated as that of his grandfather.

'I think he did; or if he didn't get it all, the remainder is settled on him. And the judge is not a man to behave better to one child than to another.'

'I suppose not.'

'And then the conversation flagged a little, for the enthusiasm was all one side. It was moreover on that side which naturally would have been the least enthusiastic. Poor Peregrine had only told