‘There I do not altogether agree with you. We are always being told that women are strange things,’ said Fullarton. ‘I am astonished at the view you take, uncle. After all, I am unable to see why my proposal should be less welcome than his--that is, if he intends to make one.’ ‘You certainly have solid advantages. After all, that is the main point with women,’ said the man for whose sake one woman, at least, had lost all. The habit of bitterness had grown strong. ‘I shall go to Morphie to-morrow, and ride one of your horses, sir, if you have no objection.’ ‘Take one, by all means; you will make all the more favourable impression. It is a very wise way of approaching your goddess--if you have a good seat, of course. Speid looks mighty well in the saddle.’ He could not resist tormenting his nephew. The very sound of Gilbert’s name was beginning to annoy Fordyce, and he changed the subject. It was not until the two men parted for the night that it was mentioned again. ‘I am going out early to-morrow,’ said Robert, ‘so I may not see you before you start. Good luck, Crauford.’ Fordyce rode well, and looked his best on horseback, but Cecilia having gone into the garden, the only eye which witnessed his approach to Morphie next day was that of a housemaid, for Lady Eliza sat writing in the long room. She received him immediately. ‘I am interrupting your ladyship,’ he remarked apologetically. ‘Not at all, sir, not at all,’ said she, pushing her chair back from the table with a gesture which had in it something masculine; ‘you are always welcome, as you know very well.’ ‘That is a pleasant hearing,’ replied he, ‘but to-day it is doubly so. I have come on business of a--I may say--peculiar nature. Lady Eliza, I trust you are my friend?’ ‘I shall be happy to serve you in any way I can, Mr. Fordyce.’ ‘Then I may count on your good offices? My uncle is so old a friend of your ladyship’s that I am encouraged to----’ ‘You are not in any difficulty with him, I hope,’ said Lady Eliza, interrupting him rather shortly. ‘Far from it; indeed, I have his expressed good wishes for the success of my errand.’ ‘Well, sir?’ she said, setting her face and folding her beautiful hands together. She was beginning to see light. ‘You may have rightly interpreted the frequency of my visits here. In fact, I feel sure that you have attributed them--and truly--to my admiration for Miss Raeburn.’ ‘I have hardly attributed them to admiration for myself,’ she remarked, with a certain grim humour. Crauford looked rather shocked. ‘Have you said anything to my niece?’ she inquired, after a moment. ‘I have waited for your approval.’ ‘That is proper enough.’ Her eyes fixed themselves, seeing beyond Crauford’s clean, solemn face, beyond the panelled walls, into the dull future when Cecilia should have gone out from her daily life. How often her spirits had flagged during the months she had been absent in Edinburgh!