you would marry soon. Now may I ask of whom were you thinking?"

Peregrine paused for a second or two before he made any reply, and
then he brought it out boldly. "I was thinking of Madeline Staveley."

"Then, my boy, you were thinking of the prettiest girl and the
best-bred lady in the county. Here's her health;" and he filled for
himself a bumper of claret. "You couldn't have named a woman whom I
should be more proud to see you bring home. And your mother's opinion
of her is the same as mine. I happen to know that;" and with a look
of triumph he drank his glass of wine, as though much that was very
joyful to him had been already settled.

"Yes," said Peregrine mournfully, "she is a very nice girl; at least
I think so."

"The man who can win her, Peregrine, may consider himself to be a
lucky fellow. You were quite right in what you were saying about
money. No man feels more sure of that than I do. But if I am not
mistaken Miss Staveley will have something of her own. I rather think
that Arbuthnot got ten thousand pounds."

"I'm sure I don't know, sir," said Peregrine; and his voice was by no
means as much elated as that of his grandfather.

"I think he did; or if he didn't get it all, the remainder is settled
on him. And the judge is not a man to behave better to one child than
to another."

"I suppose not."

And then the conversation flagged a little, for the enthusiasm was
all one side. It was moreover on that side which naturally would have
been the least enthusiastic. Poor Peregrine had only told half his
secret as yet, and that not the most important half. To Sir Peregrine
the tidings, as far as he had heard them, were very pleasant. He did
not say to himself that he would purchase his grandson's assent to
his own marriage by giving his consent to his grandson's marriage.
But it did seem to him that the two affairs, acting upon each other,
might both be made to run smooth. His heir could have made no better
choice in selecting the lady of his love. Sir Peregrine had feared
much that some Miss Tristram or the like might have been tendered to
him as the future Lady Orme, and he was agreeably surprised to find
that a new mistress for The Cleeve had been so well chosen. He would
be all kindness to his grandson and win from him, if it might be
possible, reciprocal courtesy and complaisance. "Your mother will be
very pleased when she hears this," he said.

"I meant to tell my mother," said Peregrine, still