ong of the robin
balancing on a swaying twig of the ivy climbing the old walls. White
clouds were blowing brightly across a clear, blue sky.

Lady Mary stretched out her hand and pulled a cord, which drew a rosy
curtain half across the window, and shaded the corner where she was
sitting. She looked anxiously and tenderly into Peter's face; her
quick instinct gathered that something had shaken him from his
ordinary mood of criticism or indifference.

"Are you come to have a little talk with me, my darling?" she said.

She was afraid to offer the caress she longed to bestow. She moved
from her stiff elbow-chair to the soft cushions in her favourite
corner of the window-seat, and held out a timid hand. Peter clasped
it in his own, threw himself on a stool at her feet, and rested his
forehead against her knee.

"I have something to tell you, mother, and I am afraid that, when I
have told you, you will be disappointed in me; that you will think me
inconsistent."

Her heart beat faster. "Which of us is consistent in this world, my
darling? We all change with circumstances. We are often obliged to
change, even against our wills. Tell me, Peter; I shall understand."

"There's not really anything to tell," said Peter, nervously
contradicting himself, "because nothing is exactly settled yet. But I
think something might be--before very long, if you would help me to
smooth away some of the principal difficulties."

"Yes, yes," said Lady Mary, venturing to stroke the closely cropped
black head resting against her lap.

"You know--Sarah--has been teaching me the new kind of croquet, at
Hewelscourt, since we came back from Scotland?" he said. "I don't get
on so badly, considering."

"My poor boy!"

"Oh, I was always rather inclined to be left-handed; it comes in
usefully now," said Peter, who generally hurried over any reference to
his misfortune. "Well, this morning, whilst we were playing, I asked
Sarah, for the third time, to--to marry me. The third's the lucky
time, isn't it?" he said, with a tremulous laugh, "and--and--"

"She said yes!" cried Lady Mary, clasping her hands.

"She didn't go so far as that," said Peter, rather reproachfully. His
voice shook slightly. "But she didn't say no. It's the first time she
hasn't said no."

"What did she say?" said Lady Mary.

She tried to keep her feelings of indignation and offence against
Sarah out of her voice. After all, who was Sarah that she should
presume to refus