"Well," answered John, weighing his words, "I don't know whether I can quite say that. But accident threw us together for a minute or two this afternoon, and we could scarcely do less, in civility, than exchange the time of day." "And are you in love with her?" asked Lady Blanchemain. "I wonder," said he. "What do _you_ think? Is it possible for a man to be in love with a woman he's seen only half a dozen times all told, and spoken with never longer than a minute or two at a stretch?" "_Was_ it only a minute or two--_really_?" asked Lady Blanchemain, wooing his confidence with a glance. "No," said John. "It was probably ten minutes, possibly fifteen. But they passed so quickly, it's really nearer the truth to describe them as one or two." Lady Blanchemain shifted her sunshade, and screwed herself half round, so as to face him, her soft old eyes full of smiling scrutiny and suspicion. "I never can tell whether or not you're serious," she complained. "If you _are_ serious,--well, _à quand le mariage_?" "The marriage?" cried John. "How could I marry her? Such a thing's out of all question. "Why?" asked she. "A miller's daughter!" said John. "Would you have me marry the daughter of a miller?" "You said yourself yesterday--" the lady reminded him. "Ah, yes," said he. "But night brings counsel." "If she's well educated," said Lady Blanchemain, "if she's well-bred, what does it matter about her father? Though a nobody in Austria, where nothing counts but quarterings, he's probably what we'd call a gentleman in England. Suppose he's a barrister? Or the editor of a newspaper? Or--" She paused, thoughtful-eyed, to think of respectable professions. At last she gave up the effort. "Well, anything decent," she concluded, "so long as he had plenty of money." "Ah," said John, sadly, and with perhaps mock humility. "If he had plenty of money, he'd never consent to his daughter marrying a son of poverty like me." "Pooh! For a title?" cried Lady Blanchemain. "Besides, you have prospects. Isn't your name Prospero?" "I have precious little faith in oracles," said John. "I advise you to have more," said Lady Blanchemain, with a smile that seemed occult. And now her carriage entered the village, and she put him down at the telegraph office. "Don't wait," said John. "The walk from here to the Castle is nothing, and it would take you out of your way." "Well, good-bye, then," said she. "And cultivate more faith in oracles--when they're auspicious."