is overtures
to Miss Phyllis Grove to have reached only the stage of a
half-understanding; and in view of his enforced absence on his father's
account, who was too great an invalid now to attend to his affairs, he
thought it best that there should be no definite promise as yet on either
side. He was not sure, indeed, that he might not cast his eyes
elsewhere.

This account--though only a piece of hearsay, and as such entitled to no
absolute credit--tallied so well with the infrequency of his letters and
their lack of warmth, that Phyllis did not doubt its truth for one
moment; and from that hour she felt herself free to bestow her heart as
she should choose. Not so her father; he declared the whole story to be
a fabrication. He had known Mr. Gould's family from his boyhood; and if
there was one proverb which expressed the matrimonial aspect of that
family well, it was 'Love me little, love me long.' Humphrey was an
honourable man, who would not think of treating his engagement so
lightly. 'Do you wait in patience,' he said; 'all will be right enough
in time.'

From these words Phyllis at first imagined that her father was in
correspondence with Mr. Gould; and her heart sank within her; for in
spite of her original intentions she had been relieved to hear that her
engagement had come to nothing. But she presently learnt that her father
had heard no more of Humphrey Gould than she herself had done; while he
would not write and address her affianced directly on the subject, lest
it should be deemed an imputation on that bachelor's honour.

'You want an excuse for encouraging one or other of those foreign fellows
to flatter you with his unmeaning attentions,' her father exclaimed, his
mood having of late been a very unkind one towards her. 'I see more than
I say. Don't you ever set foot outside that garden-fence without my
permission. If you want to see the camp I'll take you myself some Sunday
afternoon.'

Phyllis had not the smallest intention of disobeying him in her actions,
but she assumed herself to be independent with respect to her feelings.
She no longer checked her fancy for the Hussar, though she was far from
regarding him as her lover in the serious sense in which an Englishman
might have been regarded as such. The young foreign soldier was almost
an ideal being to her, with none of the appurtenances of an ordinary
house-dweller; one who had descended she knew not whence, and would
disappear she k