Rupert saw but little of this,
however, and was surprised one day when, as he was going out for a
ride, his grandfather said to him gravely:
"Take a turn in the garden with me, Rupert. I want to have a talk
with you.
"I think it well, Rupert," he said, after walking for some time in
silence, "to prepare you for what, if you have not guessed already,
you will be told ere long. Madam will no doubt herself inform you
of it; and it is as well, my lad, that you should be prepared, for
you might in your surprise say something hasty, and so cause a
breach which it would take long to heal."
Rupert looked in astonishment at his grandfather. He had not the
most remote idea of what was coming.
"You have doubtless noticed," Colonel Holliday went on, "the
frequency of Sir William Brownlow's visits here?"
"Yes, sir, I have noticed that, but I do not often see him. I keep
out of his way, for in truth I like him not, nor that son of his,
who, on the strength of his three years' seniority, looks down upon
me, and gives himself as many airs as madam my mother's peacock."
"And you have never even thought why he comes here so frequently?"
"No, sir," Rupert said, surprised; "it was no business of mine, and
I gave no single thought to it."
"He is a suitor for your lady mother's hand," Colonel Holliday
said, gravely.
"What!" almost shouted Rupert; "What, sir! He, with his sneering
face, dares to think--"
"My dear boy, he not only dares to think, but madam approves of the
thought, and has promised him her hand.
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