pulled me
through! And now then, sir, just kindly confess yourself, a little more
plainly. What brought you and my sisters-in-law together? You-need not
try and persuade _me_ that Long Whindale is the natural gate of the
Lakes, or the route intended by Heaven from London to Scotland, though I
have no doubt you tried that little fiction on them.'

Hugh Flaxman laughed, and sat down, very deliberately.

'I am glad to see that illness has not robbed you of that perspicacity
for which you are so remarkable, Elsmere. Well, the day before yesterday
I asked your sister Rose to marry me. She----'

'Go on man,' cried Robert, exasperated by his pause.

'I don't know how to put it,' said Flaxman calmly. 'For six months we
are to be rather more than friends, and a good deal less than _fiances_.
I am to be allowed to write to her. You may imagine how seductive it is
to one of the worst and laziest letter-writers in the three
kingdoms, that his fortunes in love should be made to depend on his
correspondence. I may scold her _if_ she gives me occasion. And in
six months, as one says to a publisher, "the agreement will be open to
revision."'

Robert stared.

'And you are not engaged?'

'Not as I understand it,' replied Flaxman. 'Decidedly not!' he added
with energy, remembering that very platonic farewell.

Robert sat with his hands on his knees, ruminating.

'A fantastic thing, the modern young woman! Still I think I can
understand. There may have been more than mere caprice in it.'

His eye met his friend's significantly.

'I suppose so,' said Flaxman quietly. Not even for Robert's benefit was
he going to reveal any details of that scene on High Fell. 'Never mind,
old fellow, I am content. And, indeed, _faute de mieux_, I should be
content with anything that brought me nearer to her, were it but by the
thousandth of an inch.'

Robert grasped his hand affectionately.

'Catherine,' he called through the door, 'never mind the supper; let it
burn. Flaxman brings news.'

Catherine listened to the story with amazement. Certainly her ways would
never have been as her sister's.

'Are we supposed to know?' she asked, very naturally.

'She never forbade me to tell,' said Flaxman, smiling. 'I think,
however, if I were you, I should say nothing about it--yet. I told her
it was part of our bargain that _she_ should explain my letters to Mrs.
Leyburn. I gave her free leave to invent any fairy tale she pleased, but
it was to b