"Of course he is! Poor man! it would be a hard fate to have fallen in love with both mother and daughter in vain!" "I won't go with him, mamma!" "You had better go, my dear. You need not be much afraid. He is really a gentleman, however easily mistaken for something else. You must not forget how much we owe him for Mark!" "Do you mean, mamma," said Hester, with a strange look out of her eyes, "that I ought to marry him if he asks me?" Hester was sometimes oddly stupid for a moment as to the intent of those she knew best. Her mother laughed heartily. "What a goose you are, my darling! Don't you know your mother from a miscreant yet?" But in truth her mother so rarely jested that there was some excuse for her. Relieved from the passing pang of a sudden dread, Hester went without more words and put on her bonnet to go with the cause of it. She did not like the things at all, for no one could be certain what absurd thing he might not do. They set out together, but until they were some distance from the house walked in absolute silence, which seemed to Hester to bode no good. But how changed the poor man was, she thought. It would be pitiful to have to make him still more miserable! Steadily the major marched along, his stick under his arm like a sword, and his eyes looking straight before him. "Cousin Hester," he said at length, "I am about to talk to you very strangely--to conduct myself indeed in a very peculiar manner. Can you imagine a man rendering himself intensely, unpardonably disagreeable, from the very best of motives?" It was a speech very different from any to be expected of him. That he should behave oddly seemed natural--not that he should knowingly intend to do so! "I think I could," answered Hester, wishing neither to lead him on nor to deter him: whatever he had to say, the sooner it was said the better! "Tell me," he said suddenly after a pause just beginning to be awkward--then paused again. "--Let me ask you first," he resumed, "whether you are able to trust me a little. I am old enough to be your father--let me say your grandfather;--fancy I am your grandfather: in my soul I believe neither could wish you well more truly than myself. Tell me--trust me and tell me: what is there between you and Mr. Vavasor?" Hester was silent. The silence would have lasted but a moment had Hester to ask herself, not what answer she should give to his question, but what answer there was to give to it. Whether bound, whether pleased to answer it or not, might have come presently, but it did not; every question has its answer, known or unknown: what was the answer to this one? Before she knew it, the major resumed. "I know," he said, "ladies think such things are not to be talked about with gentlemen; but there are exceptions to every rule: David ate the show-bread because there was a good reason for breaking a good rule.--Are you engaged to Mr. Vavasor?" "No," answered Hester promptly. "What is it then? Are you going to be?"