ly the sense that if he
were going away to strange countries he must take Biddy with him--that
something at all events must be settled about Biddy before he went. They
had suddenly begun to throb, poor things, with alarm at the ebbing
hours.

Strangely enough the perception of all this hadn't the effect of
throwing him on the defensive and still less that of making him wish to
bolt. When once he had made sure what was in the air he recognised a
propriety, a real felicity in it; couldn't deny that he was in certain
ways a good match, since it was quite probable he would go far; and was
even generous enough--as he had no fear of being materially dragged to
the altar--to enter into the conception that he might offer some balm to
a mother who had had a horrid disappointment. The feasibility of
marrying Biddy was not exactly augmented by the idea that his doing so
would be a great offset to what Nick had made Lady Agnes suffer; but at
least Peter didn't dislike his strenuous aunt so much as to wish to
punish her for her nature. He was not afraid of her, whatever she might
do; and though unable to grasp the practical relevancy of Biddy's being
produced on the instant was willing to linger half an hour on the chance
of successful production.

There was meanwhile, moreover, a certain contagion in Lady Agnes's
appeal--it made him appeal sensibly to himself, since indeed, as it is
time to say, the glass of our young man's spirit had been polished for
that reflexion. It was only at this moment really that he became
inwardly candid. While making up his mind that his only safety was in
flight and taking the strong measure of a request for help toward it, he
was yet very conscious that another and probably still more effectual
safeguard--especially if the two should be conjoined--lay in the hollow
of his hand. His sister's words in Paris had come back to him and had
seemed still wiser than when uttered: "She'll save you disappointments;
you'd know the worst that can happen to you, and it wouldn't be bad."
Julia had put it into a nutshell--Biddy would probably save him
disappointments. And then she was--well, she was Biddy. Peter knew
better what that was since the hour he had spent with her in Rosedale
Road. But he had brushed away the sense of it, though aware that in
doing so he took only half-measures and was even guilty of a sort of
fraud upon himself. If he was sincere in wishing to put a gulf between
his future and that sad e