"At Mrs Fortescue's?" said the young man. "You surely have not been there about--about Florence and me!" "Yes, I have, Mike, and you can't blame me; and I have got the most satisfactory information for you. The girl's income will run into thousands, my boy--yes, into thousands." Now, of course, Lieutenant Reid was delighted to hear this, but he felt all the same annoyed at his father's lack of circumspection in going to see Mrs Fortescue. "The news will be all over the place," he said. "That woman is the most inveterate gossip in Langdale. She will tell all her friends just what has happened, and if Flo chooses to give me up, you will be the one to blame." "Oh, she won't give you up. She loves you dearly, my boy; and no other, no other," said the Major. "I really congratulate you, Mike; and if there is any possible way in which I can help you at the present moment, you have but to command it. Some thousands a year! Three, four, five-- I should not be the least surprised if it was five thousand a year. The girls have been brought up as if they might expect that income at the very least. You're a lucky dog--a very lucky dog, Mike." CHAPTER EIGHT. A TEMPTING TEA. Mrs Fortescue's morning had been so exciting that she really could not settle down at searching through her house linen for possible or impossible holes during the afternoon. It was her bounden duty to go to see the Arbuthnots. She ought to visit them after the delightful dinner they had given her on Christmas Day. Accordingly, putting on her most becoming dress, she started off between three and four o'clock in the direction of their house. She must meet the train which would bring her darlings back to her between six and seven, but during the intervening hours she might spend her time quite comfortably with Susie, chatting to her, of course--not on _the_ subject, but on every possible subject which led towards it, approaching it, as it were, by every devious path within her knowledge.