e up and see you if
he wanted to? They poeters, they do love writing long yarns--don't they?'
And with this reflection, Milly took the note and read it through again.

'It's jolly polite anyhow, isn't it Maud?' said Milly, who had conned it
over, and accepted it as a model composition.

I must have been, I think, naturally a rather shrewd girl; and considering
how very little I had seen of the world--nothing in fact--I often wonder
now at the sage conclusions at which I arrived.

Were I to answer this handsome and cunning fool according to his folly,
in what position should I find myself? No doubt my reply would induce
a rejoinder, and that compel another note from me, and that invite yet
another from him; and however his might improve in warmth, they were sure
not to abate. Was it his impertinent plan, with this show of respect and
ceremony, to drag me into a clandestine correspondence? Inexperienced girl
as I was, I fired at the idea of becoming his dupe, and fancying, perhaps,
that there was more in merely answering his note than it would have
amounted to, I said--

'That kind of thing may answer very well with button-makers, but ladies
don't like it. What would your papa think of it if he found that I had been
writing to him, and seeing him without his permission? If he wanted to
see me he could have'--(I really did not know exactly what he could have
done)--'he could have timed his visit to Lady Knollys differently; at all
events, he has no right to place me in an embarrassing situation, and I am
certain Cousin Knollys would say so; and I think his note both shabby and
impertinent.'

Decision was not with me an intellectual process. When quite cool I was the
most undecided of mortals, but once my feelings were excited I was prompt
and bold.

'I'll give the note to Uncle Silas,' I said, quickening my pace toward
home; 'he'll know what to do.'

But Milly, who, I fancy, had no objection to the little romance which the
young officer proposed, told me that she could not see her father, that he
was ill, and not speaking to anyone.

'And arn't ye making a plaguy row about nothin'? I lay a guinea if ye had
never set eyes on Lord Ilbury you'd a told him to come, and see ye, an'
welcome.'

'Don't talk like a fool, Milly. You never knew me do anything deceitful.
Lord Ilbury has no more to do with it, you know very well, than the man in
the moon.'

I was altogether very indignant. I did not speak another word to Mi