about it as yet; on the contrary, she met his look
sympathetically and with deprecation after the first natural blush,
and soothed him in her feminine way, patting softly with her pretty
hand the sleeve of his coat.

"Nobody knows," said Lucy. "We must wait, and have patience. We have
more time to spare than they have," she added, with a little laugh.
"We must wait."

"I don't see the _must_," said the Perpetual Curate. "I have been
thinking it all over since the morning. I see no reason why I should
always have to give in, and wait; self-sacrifice is well enough when
it can't be helped, but I don't see any reason for postponing my
happiness indefinitely. Look here, Lucy. It appears to me at present
that there are only two classes of people in the world--those who will
wait, and those who won't. I don't mean to enrol myself among the
martyrs. The man who gets his own way is the man who takes it. I don't
see any reason in the world for concluding that I _must_ wait."

Lucy Wodehouse was a very good young woman, a devoted Anglican, and
loyal to all her duties; but she had always been known to possess a
spark of spirit, and this rebellious quality came to a sudden blaze at
so unlooked-for a speech. "Mr Wentworth," said Lucy, looking the
Curate in the face with a look which was equivalent to making him a
low curtsy, "I understood there were two people to be consulted as to
the must or must not;" and having entered this protest, she withdrew
her chair a little farther off, and bestowed her attention absolutely
upon the piece of needlework in her hand.

If the ground had suddenly been cut away underneath Frank Wentworth's
feet, he could not have been more surprised; for, to tell the truth,
it had not occurred to him to doubt that he himself was the final
authority on this point, though, to be sure, it was part of the
conventional etiquette that the lady should "fix the day." He sat
gazing at her with so much surprise that for a minute or two he could
say nothing. "Lucy, I am not going to have you put yourself on the
other side," he said at last; "there is not to be any opposition
between you and me."

"That is as it may be," said Lucy, who was not mollified. "You seem to
have changed your sentiments altogether since the morning, and there
is no change in the circumstances, at least that I can see."

"Yes, there is a great change," said the young man. "If I could have
sacrificed myself in earnest and said nothing--"