He knew very well what a fool he would appear to everybody--how the idea that he, Rollo, with all his experience, should be thus taken in at last, would cause infinite surprise and laughter among his friends--but still there came a gleam of possibility into the matter when he thought of Lottie’s gift. By that means they might do it. It was not quite out of the question, quite impossible. Rollo had been so lost in thought that he had not seen Mr. Jeremie looking out from the window through which he had gone into the garden; but as he arrived at this, which was a kind of conclusion, if not a very satisfactory one, he became at last aware of the respectable butler’s anxiety. “Her ladyship, sir, don’t hold with leaving the windows open,” said Mr. Jeremie, who did not hold with staying out of bed to attend upon a young man’s vagaries. There had been nothing of this kind in Miss Augusta’s time--not even when Mr. Daventry came courting. Rollo tossed the end of his cigar over the wall and came in, somewhat relieved in his mind, though the relief was not very great. It left all the immediate question unsolved--what his family would say, and what was to be done in the meantime--but it gave a feeble light of possibility in the future. He had calculated on Lottie’s voice to make his fortune when he thought of it only as a speculator. He had much more right to look upon her as likely to make his fortune now. In the morning the same thought was the first in Rollo’s mind; but the faint light of hope it gave was surrounded by clouds that were full of trouble. Supposing that in the course of time, when she was thoroughly established in her profession, trained and started, she could manage to attain that most necessary thing called an income, with which to meet the world--this was a contingency which still lay in the future; whereas it might be necessary to act at once. The very urgency and anxiety of Rollo’s thoughts will show that he neither wanted to abandon Lottie nor to allow her to guess that he was alarmed by his engagement to her. The whole scope and object of his deliberations was to make the thing possible. But for this why should he have troubled himself about it at all? He might have “let things take their course”--he might have gone on enjoying the delights of love-making, and all a lover’s privileges, without going any further. Lottie was not the kind of girl who ever would have hurried matters, or insisted upon the engagement being kept. He knew well enough that she would never “pull him up.” But he was in love with Lottie--he wanted to deliver her from her troubles--he wanted to have her for his own--if he could only see how it was to be done. Evidently there were various conditions which must be insisted on--which Lottie must yield to. Public notice must not be called to the tie between them more than was absolutely necessary. Everything must be conducted carefully and privately--not to make any scandal--and not to