ince then. He has said nothing to me upon the subject, nor
I to him; for you know how silent he always is about himself. But I
cannot help wishing that such a thing might come to pass. He has one
of the best names in the North Riding, and a first-rate position as
the owner of Cumber Priory. He only wants money.'

I was too young and inexperienced to take a worldly view of things,
and from this moment felt disposed to distrust Mr. Egerton. I
remembered the story of his early attachment, and told myself that a
man who had loved once like that had in all probability worn out his
powers of loving.

'I don't think Mr. Darrell would approve of, or even permit, such a
marriage,' I said presently. 'I know he has a very bad opinion of
Mr. Egerton.'

'On what account?'

'On account of his conduct to his mother.'

'No one knows the secret of that affair except Angus himself,'
answered Mrs. Collingwood. 'I don't think any one has a right to
think badly of him upon that ground. I knew Mrs. Egerton very well.
She was a proud hard woman, capable of almost anything in order to
accomplish any set purpose of her own. Up to the time when he went
to Oxford Angus had been an excellent son.'

'Was it at Oxford he met the girl he wanted to marry?'

'No; it was somewhere in the west of England, where he went on a
walking tour during the long vacation.'

'He must have loved her very much, to act as he did. I should doubt
his power ever to love any one else.'

'That is quite a girl's way of thinking, my dear Miss Crofton.
Depend upon it, after that kind of stormy first love, there
generally comes a better and truer feeling. Angus was little more
than a boy then. He is in the prime of manhood now, able to judge
wisely, and not easily to be caught, or he would have married in all
those years abroad.'

This seemed reasonable enough; but I was vexed, nevertheless, by
Mrs. Collingwood's match-making notions, which seemed to disturb the
peaceful progress of our lives. After this I looked upon every
invitation to the Rectory--where we never went without meeting Mr.
Egerton--as a kind of snare; but our visits there were always very
pleasant, and I grew in time to think with more indulgence of the
Rector's wife's desire for her favourite's advantage.

In all this time Angus Egerton had in no manner betrayed the state
of his feelings. If he met us in our walks oftener than seemed
possible by mere chance, there was nothing strictly lover-lik