“Sweetheart, thou hast all a father’s love, and it is happiness to me to have thee here; but old as I am, and with so little cunning to read a maiden’s heart, I can read clear enough to know thou art not happy. Whisper, dearest. Is it a sweetheart who sighs for thy favours far off, and will not beard this old lion in his den? My gentle Angela would make no ill choice. Fear not to trust me, my heart. I will love whom you love, favour whom you favour. I am no tyrant, that my sweet daughter should grow pale with keeping secrets from me.” “Dear father, you are all goodness. No, there is no one—no one! I am happy with you. I have no one in the world but you, and, in a so much lesser degree of love, my sister and her children—” “And Fareham. He should be to you as a brother. He is of a black melancholic humour, and not a man whom women love; but he has a heart of gold, and must regard you with grateful affection for your goodness to him when he was sick. Hyacinth is never weary of expatiating upon your devotion in that perilous time.” “She is foolish to talk of services I would have given as willingly to a sick beggar,” Angela answered, impatiently. Her face was still hidden against her father’s breast; but she lifted her head presently, and the pale calmness of her countenance reassured him. “Well, it is uncommon strange,” he said, “if one so fair has no sweetheart among all the sparks of Whitehall.” “Lord Fareham hates Whitehall. We have only attended there at great festivals, when my sister’s absence would have been a slight upon her Majesty and the Duchess.” “But my star, though seldom shining there, should have drawn some satellites to her orbit. You see, dearest, I can catch the note of Court flattery. Nay, I will press no questions. My girl shall choose her own partner; provided the man is honest and a loyal servant of the King. Her old father shall set no stumbling-block in the high-road to her happiness. What right has one who is almost a pauper to stipulate for a wealthy son-in-law?” CHAPTER XXIII. PATIENT, NOT PASSIONATE.