“What, is he still doing so?” exclaimed the Earl, feeling that here must be the clue to the mystery.

“Oh, no!” she replied. “Not for a long time now.”

“Then why the devil, if he don’t want to talk of the Lincombe beauty, should he seek you out?” he demanded. “Depend upon it, it has been to attach you!”

“He does not precisely seek me out,” she responded. “Only, if we meet at parties, he is too kind, and, I think, too great a gentleman, to pass me by with no more than a common bow.” She paused, and sighed, blinking at her father. “How silly! I expect you are quite right, and he has had this notion of offering for me ever since Major Ludlow was killed.”

“Of course I am right, and a fine compliment he is paying you!”

“Oh, no!” she said, and relapsed into silence, gazing thoughtfully before her.

He began to feel uneasy. It was impossible to read her countenance. It was mournful, yet tranquil; but in the tone of her voice there was an alarming note which recalled to his mind her contumacious behaviour when he had disclosed to her the only other offer he had ever received for her hand. He remembered how meekly she had borne every manifestation of his wrath, how dutifully she had begged his pardon for disobliging him. That had been five years ago, but here she was, still a spinster. After eying her for a moment or two, he said: “If you let this chance of achieving a respectable alliance slip, you are a bigger fool than I take you for, Hester!”

Her eyes came round to his face, a smile quivered for an instant on her lips. “No, how could that be, Papa?”

He decided to ignore this. “You and he are both past the age of romantical high-flights,” he urged. “He is a very agreeable fellow, and I don’t doubt he’ll make you a kind husband. Generous, too! You will have enough pin-money to make your sisters stare, a position of consequence, and you will be mistress of a very pretty establishment. It is not as though your affections were engaged otherwhere: of course, if that were so, it would be another matter; but, as I told Ludlow, though I could not answer for your sentiments upon this occasion, I could assure him that you had formed no other attachment.”