But when Robert Darnley gave them an account of what poor Penelope had suffered, and how reluctantly she had been dragged up to London, and how destitute and friendless she had felt herself before she had given her consent to the favorite scheme of the Countess of Smatterton, then did they pity her, and they began to blame themselves that they had ever thought unworthily of her. And then they did all express the most sincere and hearty wishes and hopes that Mr Darnley the elder would soon be reconciled, and they thought and said how happy they should be to renew the acquaintance with Penelope. Mrs Darnley went so far as to say that she would take the earliest opportunity of calling upon Miss Primrose; but it was presently suggested by the rest of the party, that such a measure would not be most advisable in present circumstances. “Or, at all events,” said Robert Darnley, “if you were to call, it would be desirable that you should let Mr Primrose and Penelope understand that your visit is made without my father’s knowledge.” This remark the young gentleman made, because he knew that Penelope would expect him, inasmuch as he had at his last visit to Smatterton confidently said, that he so well knew his father’s temper that he was satisfied that all objection would disappear very speedily when the real state of the case should be made known. The young man however had not rightly calculated on the power of prejudice and the force of obstinate and wilful blindness. Now, though Mrs Darnley was the best tempered woman in the world, and was disposed to do any one a service, yet she had in a very high degree the gift of clumsiness, and was quite as likely to do harm as good, notwithstanding her very best and sincerest intentions. The young ladies therefore dissuaded their mother from her proposal; but when they understood that their brother was especially anxious just at this time to see Penelope, or at least to send some message to her, and that it would be exceedingly hazardous that he should go at the present juncture, they proposed that they would take a walk to Smatterton, and endeavour as it were, by accident, to fall in with Penelope. The young gentleman was pleased with the offer and accepted it. CHAPTER VI. That the daughters of the rector of Neverden should all three walk out together on a fine morning was by no means remarkable, for it was their constant practice; and that they should turn towards Smatterton when they went out at the great gate, was not at all wonderful, for had they turned the other way they would have had no walk but on the narrow straightforward road. So that when Mr Darnley the elder saw them from his study window, he had not the remotest suspicion of the object of their excursion.