R XXXVIII

OH, INDEED!

The dinner on that day at The Cleeve was not very dull. Peregrine had
some hopes that the idea of the marriage might be abandoned, and was
at any rate much better disposed towards Lady Mason than he had been.
He spoke to her, asking her whether she had been out, and suggesting
roast mutton or some such creature comfort. This was lost neither on
Sir Peregrine nor on Mrs. Orme, and they both exerted themselves to
say a few words in a more cheery tone than had been customary in the
house for the last day or two. Lady Mason herself did not say much;
but she had sufficient tact to see the effort which was being made;
and though she spoke but little she smiled and accepted graciously
the courtesies that were tendered to her.

Then the two ladies went away, and Peregrine was again left with his
grandfather. "That was a nasty accident that Graham had going out of
Monkton Grange," said he, speaking on the moment of his closing the
dining-room door after his mother. "I suppose you heard all about
it, sir?" Having fought his battle so well before dinner, he was
determined to give some little rest to his half-vanquished enemy.

"The first tidings we heard were that he was dead," said Sir
Peregrine, filling his glass.

"No; he wasn't dead. But of course you know that now. He broke an arm
and two ribs, and got rather a bad squeeze. He was just behind me,
you know, and I had to wait for him. I lost the run, and had to see
Harriet Tristram go away with the best lead any one has had to a
fast thing this year. That's an uncommon nasty place at the back of
Monkton Grange."

"I hope, Peregrine, you don't think too much about Harriet Tristram."

"Think of her! who? I? Think of her in what sort of a way? I think
she goes uncommonly well to hounds."

"That may be, but I should not wish to see you pin your happiness on
any lady that was celebrated chiefly for going well to hounds."

"Do you mean marry her?" and Peregrine immediately made a strong
comparison in his mind between Miss Tristram and Madeline Staveley.

"Yes; that's what I did mean."

"I wouldn't have her if she owned every fox-cover in the county. No,
by Jove! I know a trick worth two of that. It's jolly enough to see
them going, but as to being in love with them--in that sort of way--"

"You are quite right, my boy; quite right. It is not that that a man
wants in a wife."

"No," said Peregrine, with a melancholy cadence in his voice,
thin