note to George asking him to come over on the
following evening after dinner, as he wished to speak to him on a
matter of business.

"There," he said to himself, "that will make an end of the affair, and
I will get young Heigham back and they can be married. George can
never take what I mean to offer; if he should, the Egyptian will be
spoiled indeed, and the game will be worth the candle. Not that I have
any responsibility about it, however; I shall put no pressure on
Angela, she must choose for herself." And Philip went to bed, quite
feeling as though he had done a virtuous action.

George came punctually enough on the following evening, which was that
of the day of Lady Bellamy's conversation with Angela, a conversation
which had so upset the latter that she had already gone to her room,
not knowing anything of her cousin's proposed visit.

The night was one of those dreadfully oppressive ones that sometimes
visit us in the course of an English summer. The day had been hot and
sultry, and with the fall of the evening the little breeze that
stirred in the thunder-laden air had died away, leaving the
temperature at much the same point that is to be expected in a
tropical valley, and rendering the heat of the house almost
unbearable.

"How do you do, George?" said Philip. "Hot, isn't it?"

"Yes, there will be a tempest soon."

"Not before midnight, I think. Shall we go and walk down by the lake,
it will be cooler there, and we shall be quite undisturbed? Walls have
ears sometimes, you know."

"Very well; but where is Angela?"

"I met her on the stairs just now, and she said that she was going to
bed--got a headache, I believe. Shall we start?"

So soon as they were well away from the house, Philip broke the ice.

"Some months back, I had a conversation with Lady Bellamy on the
subject of a proposal that you made to me through her for Angela's
hand. It is about that I wish to speak to you now. First, I must ask
if you still wish to go on with the business?"

"Certainly, I wish it more than ever."

"Well, as I intimated to Lady Bellamy, I do not at all approve of your
suit. Angela is already, subject to my consent, very suitably engaged
to your late ward, a young fellow whom, whatever you may think about
him, I like very much; and I can assure you that it will require the
very strongest inducements to make me even allow such a thing. In any
case, I will have nothing to do with influencing Angela; she is a