“I hope not, indeed. Oh, Major Rossiter!” The mother’s position was also difficult, as it is of no use to play with a fish too long without making an attempt to stick the hook into his gills. “Lady Wanless!” “What am I to say to you? I am sure you know my feelings. You know how sincere is Sir Walter’s regard.” “I am very much flattered, Lady Wanless.” “That means nothing.” This was true, but the Major did not mean to intend anything. “Of all my flock she is the fairest.” That was true also. The Major would have been delighted to accede to the assertion of the young lady’s beauty, if this might have been the end of it. “I had thought----” “Had thought what, Lady Wanless?” “If I am deceived in you, Major Rossiter, I never will believe in a man again. I have looked upon you as the very soul of honour.” “I trust that I have done nothing to lessen your good opinion.” “I do not know. I cannot say. Why do you answer me in this way about my child?” Then she held her hands together and looked up into his face imploringly. He owned to himself that she was a good actress. He was almost inclined to submit and to declare his passion for Georgiana. For the present that way out of the difficulty would have been so easy! “You shall hear from me to-morrow morning,” he said, almost solemnly. “Shall I?” she asked, grasping his hand. “Oh, my friend, let it be as I desire. My whole life shall be devoted to making you happy,--you and her.” Then he was allowed to escape. Lady Wanless, before she went to bed, was closeted for awhile with the eldest daughter. As Sophia was now almost as good as a married woman, she was received into closer counsel than the others. “Burmeston will do,” she said; “but, as for that Cavalry man, he means it no more than the chair.” The pity was that Burmeston might have been secured without the archery meeting, and that all the money, spent on behalf of the Major, should have been thrown away. CHAPTER VII. AFTER THE PARTY. WHEN the Major left Brook Park on the morning after the archery amusements he was quite sure of this,--that under no circumstances whatever would he be induced to ask Miss Georgiana Wanless to be his wife. He had promised to write a letter,--and he would write one instantly. He did not conceive it possible but that Lady Wanless should understand what would be the purport of that letter, although as she left him on the previous night she had pretended to hope otherwise. That her hopes had not been very high we know from the words which she spoke to Sophia in the privacy of her own room.