‘Look here, mother dear. You mustn’t speak in that way of Alice. Remember she will be my wife. Besides, you are quite mistaken. She is not a flirt at all. She is very high-spirited, and has been brought up in a free and easy manner (what with her father being away and her mother an invalid), but that will be all altered by-and-by. She loves me very dearly, for aught you may think, and when she is my wife, she will be all that you can wish her to be--of that I am very sure.’ ‘She may well love you,’ said Mrs Blythe, looking fondly at her son; ‘who could help loving you, Vernon? But there is another side to the question, _Do you love her?_’ At that he started, and looked uneasy. Still his answer was given manfully. ‘Of course I do. Who wouldn’t? A dear, sweet little girl like that. Why, mother, when I look at Alice, I think sometimes she’s just the very prettiest girl I’ve ever seen. Such eyes and teeth and skin! And such a merry smile! She’s the very impersonation of a sunbeam! A man couldn’t be unhappy with a creature like that by his side. She’d make him laugh at a funeral.’ ‘I acknowledge all that,’ said Mrs Blythe, shaking her head oracularly; ‘but giggles and blushes and good eyes don’t make the happiness of a man’s life, when there’s nothing else behind them. And sometimes, my boy,’ she continued, coming round to his side and putting her hand caressingly upon his hair, ‘sometimes I fancy--now don’t be angry with me, dear, for I wouldn’t vex you for the world--but sometimes I have thought--’ ‘Well, mother, what have you thought?’ asked Vernon, as he took her hand in his and laid his cheek against it. ‘That Alice Leyton is not your first fancy, Vernon, and that my boy has had a disappointment of which I have never heard.’ His youthful cheek grew crimson, then. She could see the blood mounting to his forehead and the roots of his hair. And when he answered her his voice seemed suddenly to have changed. ‘And what then?’ he said curtly. ‘Is there no hope--no chance--my darling?’ asked Mrs Blythe. ‘Not the slightest. Had there been, do you suppose I should have been engaged to Alice Leyton? I don’t know how you have guessed there was ever another, mother, but it all happened a long time ago, and I have nearly forgotten it.’ ‘Vernon, my dear, that is not true. You cannot have forgotten it, or the allusion would not move you in this manner. And as for “long ago,” why, you were only five-and-twenty last month. How soon did you begin to fall in love?’ ‘Never mind that, mother. Whenever it occurred, or however it affected me, it is a thing of the past, and I would rather you never spoke of it to me or any one again.’ ‘And won’t you tell me who it was?’ said Mrs Blythe, kissing his forehead. ‘What is the use?’ he rejoined, wearily.