"Then of course you know he is returning to England shortly and holds a great reception at his place in town, a fortnight from to-day, I think?" "Yes, sir." "And in the space of two years you have received one letter from your beautiful gipsy?" "Only one, sir! Though his lordship has kept me informed as to her welfare and progress." "Such sublime patience argues either indifference or stupendous faith, boy!" "Sir--sir," cried I, stirred at last. "Oh, sir, how may love be--how endure without faith?" "Yours is a strange love, Peregrine, exceeding patient and long-suffering! You practically compelled her to--accept his lordship's offer, I believe?" "Uncle--Uncle Jervas," I stammered, "how should you know this?" "I have the honour to number the Earl of Wyvelstoke among my few friends, he writes to me also--occasionally. You are an immensely confiding lover, and your patience is almost--superhuman." "However, my waiting is nearly over, I shall see her soon--soon!" "In company with every buck, Corinthian and Macaroni in London, Peregrine." "Still--I shall see her, sir!" "If the reports of her singing, her wit and beauty are but half true, Peregrine, she will be the rage, the universal toast." "Still--she will be--Diana, sir!" "But two years, Nephew--wealth, rank, adulation--can these have wrought no change, think you?" "Only for the better, sir!" "Oh, the sublime assurance of Youth!" murmured my uncle. "Have you no doubt of yourself, now that you are no longer the--the--ah--'only Richmond in the field'?" Here, though I strove to speak, I could not, but walked with head bowed, but very conscious of his keen scrutiny. "You are so intense, Perry," he continued after a moment, "so very, damnably intense that I confess I grow a little fearful lest you be disappointed, and therefore take the liberty to annoy you with my dismal croakings, if I may--shall I proceed?" "Pray do, sir!" "Then, Peregrine, I would warn you that, considering her new attitude towards life, her very altered views upon the world in general, it is only to be expected your gipsy may find you very different from her first estimation of you--" "Ah, there it is, sir--there it is!" I groaned. "The haunting fear that to-day--measured by the larger standard of her new experiences, she may find me fall very far short of what she imagines me--" "And if this be so,--how then?" "Do not ask me, sir,--don't!" "The ordinary, impassioned youth, under such unpleasantly frequent circumstances, Peregrine, would seek oblivion in bottles or fly instantly to all manner of riot and dissipation and be cured sooner or later--but you? Knowing what I do of your devilishly intense nature, I must admit I am a little disquieted. You see, Peregrine, I have learned, though I grant you a little painfully, still I have learned at last to--ah--to care for you so much that your unhappiness would affect me--rather cursedly, boy--yes, rather cursedly."