“All settled?” she said, with a little shake of her head. “You are young and confident, Mr Winton; you think things settle themselves so easily as this. But I fear the preliminaries will be more lengthened than you suppose. Do you know, I wish very much you had consulted me before speaking to Jane.” “Why?” he asked, fixing his eyes upon her with an astonished gaze. Then he added, “I know Lady Jane is a great lady, a princess royal. She is like that. I am a little democratic myself, but I acknowledge in her everything that is beautiful in rank. She should be approached like a crowned head.” “Not quite that perhaps,” said the Duchess, smiling. “With every observance, every ceremony; but then,” he added, “that is not the English fashion, you know, to ask others first. One thinks of her, herself as the only judge.” The Duchess continued to shake her head. “That is all very well with ordinary girls, but Jane’s position is so exceptional. Mr Winton, I hope you will not be disappointed or annoyed by what I tell you. Had you asked me, I should have said to you, No.” “No!” he repeated vaguely, looking into her face. He could not even realise what her meaning was. “I should have said, Don’t do it, Mr Winton, for your own sake.” Winton rose up in the excitement of the moment and stood before her like a man petrified. “Don’t do it! Do you mean---- Pardon me if I am slow of understanding.” “I mean, seeing it had unfortunately come about that, without being able to help it, you had fallen in love with Jane----” “Unfortunately!” “You do nothing but repeat my words,” the Duchess cried in a plaintive tone. “It _is_ unfortunately--but hear me out first. If you had spoken to me I should have said, Try and get over it, Mr Winton; don’t disturb her, poor girl, by telling her. Try if a little trip to America, or tiger-shooting, or to be a ‘Times’ correspondent, or some other of those exciting things which you young men do nowadays, will not cure you. I should have said, You have not known her very long, it cannot have gone very deep. I tell you this to show you what my advice would have been had you asked me before speaking to Jane.” “But it is of no use speculating upon what we should have done in an imaginary case,” said Winton. He had awoke from his first bewilderment, and began to understand vaguely that everything was not going to be easy for him as he had once thought. “You see I _have_ spoken to her,” he said. “You frighten me horribly; but then it is of no use considering what you would have done in a totally different case.” The Duchess sighed and shook her head. “That is what I should have thought it my duty to say, in view of all the pain and confusion that are sure to follow. Do you know, Mr Winton, that her father will never listen to you--never!” she said, with a sudden change of tone.