e got better she would sit with him, and
brought back reports as to his sayings. But Madeline never discussed
any of these; and refrained alike from the conversation, whether
his broken bones or his unbroken wit were to be the subject of it.
And then Mrs. Arbuthnot, knowing that she would still be anxious,
gave her private bulletins as to the state of the sick man's
progress;--all which gave an air of secrecy to the matter, and caused
even Madeline to ask herself why this should be so.

On the whole I think that Mrs. Arbuthnot was wrong. Mrs. Arbuthnot
and the whole Staveley family would have regarded a mutual attachment
between Mr. Graham and Madeline as a great family misfortune. The
judge was a considerate father to his children, holding that a
father's control should never be brought to bear unnecessarily. In
looking forward to the future prospects of his sons and daughters
it was his theory that they should be free to choose their life's
companions for themselves. But nevertheless it could not be agreeable
to him that his daughter should fall in love with a man who had
nothing, and whose future success at his own profession seemed to be
so very doubtful. On the whole I think that Mrs. Arbuthnot was wrong,
and that the feeling that did exist in Madeline's bosom might more
possibly have died away, had no word been said about it--even by a
sister.

And then another event happened which forced her to look into her
own heart. Peregrine Orme did make his proposal. He waited patiently
during those two or three days in which the doctor's visits were
frequent, feeling that he could not talk about himself while any
sense of danger pervaded the house. But then at last a morning came
on which the surgeon declared that he need not call again till
the morrow; and Felix himself, when the medical back was turned,
suggested that it might as well be to-morrow week. He began also to
scold his friends, and look bright about the eyes, and drink his
glass of sherry in a pleasant dinner-table fashion, not as if he were
swallowing his physic. And Peregrine, when he saw all this, resolved
that the moment had come for the doing of his deed of danger. The
time would soon come at which he must leave Noningsby, and he would
not leave Noningsby till he had learned his fate.

Lady Staveley, who with a mother's eye had seen her daughter's
solicitude for Felix Graham's recovery,--had seen it, and
animadverted on it to herself,--had seen also,