ndeed, if the truth be told, Geraldine very rarely quoted her mother's
opinions--she was so certain that Percival would contradict them.

'We are surely able to make up our own minds without consulting your
parents, my dear,' he would say, in rather a crushing tone; for
prosperity had fed his self-confidence, and it needed the discipline of
trouble to teach him humility.

At that moment Dr. Ross entered the room, and at the first sight of his
face Audrey sprang up, and he opened his arms to receive her.

'Oh, daddy, is it all right?'

'Well, it is as far right as it can be,' he replied, in rather an
inexplicable voice. 'Emmie, my dear, this girl of ours has taken the bit
between her teeth. Geraldine never gave us this trouble. She fell in
love with the right man at the right time, and everything was arranged
properly.'

'And now the right man has fallen in love with me,' whispered Audrey in
her father's ear.

'But you have given your consent, John?' returned his wife, in a
pleading tone. In spite of her fears about Geraldine, her sympathies
were by this time enlisted on the side of the lovers. 'Of course, Mr.
Blake is a poor man; but I daresay Dr. Charrington will push him when he
knows how things are; and he is so nice and pleasant and clever, and
dear Audrey really loves him.'

'Are you sure of that?' trying to catch a glimpse of his daughter's
face. 'Girls make mistakes sometimes.' And then, as a faint protest
reached him: 'Well, you will find the fellow in my study, if you want to
talk to him. Perhaps you had better bring him in to see your mother.'

And Audrey withdrew, blushing like a rose.

'She is very fond of him, John,' observed Mrs. Ross, with a trace of
anxiety in her tone, as though her husband's manner did not quite
satisfy her. 'She has been talking to me for the last hour. Audrey never
cared for anyone before. You remember young Silverdale and Fred
Langton--they were both in love with her, and would have spoken if she
had given them the chance; but she was as distant as possible.'

'Yes; and Fred Langton has fifteen hundred a year, and his father is a
Member of Parliament. He is a nice fellow, too--only a little too stout
for so young a man; but he is not the sort Audrey would fancy. Blake is
a good fellow, and I liked him from the first,' continued the Doctor, in
a musing tone; 'but I never should have picked him out for Audrey.'

'Perhaps you think him too young?' hazarded his wife.

'Yes