CHAPTER IV.

AN ARRANGEMENT

“That _is_ serious,” said Dick, more intellectually than he had spoken

for a long time.

The truth was that Geoffrey knew nothing about his daughter’s continued

walks and meetings with Dick. When a hint that there were symptoms of

an attachment between them had first reached Geoffrey’s ears, he stated

so emphatically that he must think the matter over before any such

thing could be allowed that, rather unwisely on Dick’s part, whatever

it might have been on the lady’s, the lovers were careful to be seen

together no more in public; and Geoffrey, forgetting the report, did

not think over the matter at all. So Mr. Shiner resumed his old

position in Geoffrey’s brain by mere flux of time. Even Shiner began to

believe that Dick existed for Fancy no more,—though that remarkably

easy-going man had taken no active steps on his own account as yet.

“And father has not only told Mr. Shiner that,” continued Fancy, “but

he has written me a letter, to say he should wish me to encourage Mr.

Shiner, if ’twas convenient!”

“I must start off and see your father at once!” said Dick, taking two

or three vehement steps to the south, recollecting that Mr. Day lived

to the north, and coming back again.

“I think we had better see him together. Not tell him what you come

for, or anything of the kind, until he likes you, and so win his brain

through his heart, which is always the way to manage people. I mean in

this way: I am going home on Saturday week to help them in the

honey-taking. You might come there to me, have something to eat and

drink, and let him guess what your coming signifies, without saying it

in so many words.”

“We’ll do it, dearest. But I shall ask him for you, flat and plain; not

wait for his guessing.” And the lover then stepped close to her, and

attempted to give her one little kiss on the cheek, his lips alighting,

however, on an outlying tract of her back hair by reason of an impulse

that had caused her to turn her head with a jerk. “Yes, and I’ll put on

my second-best suit and a clean shirt and collar, and black my boots as

if ’twas a Sunday. ’Twill have a good appearance, you see, and that’s a

great deal to start with.”

“You won’t wear that old waistcoat, will you, Dick?”

“Bless you, no! Why I—”

“I didn’t mean to be personal, dear Dick,” she said, fearing she had

hurt his feelings. “’Tis a very nice waistcoat, but what I meant was,

that though it is an excellent waistcoat for a settled-down man, it is

not quite one for” (she waited, and a blush expanded over her face, and

then she went on again)—“for going courting in.”

“No, I’ll wear my best winter one, with the leather lining, that mother

made. It is a beautiful, handsome waistcoat inside, yes, as ever

anybody saw. In fact, only the other day, I unbuttoned it to show a

chap that very lining, and he said it was the strongest, handsomest

lining you could wish to see on the king’s waistcoat himself.”

“_I_ don’t quite know what to wear,” she said, as if her habitual

indifference alone to dress had kept back so important a subject till

now.

“Why, that blue frock you wore last week.”

“Doesn’t set well round the neck. I couldn’t wear that.”

“But I shan’t care.”

“No, you won’t mind.”

“Well, then it’s all right. Because you only care how you look to me,

do you, dear? I only dress for you, that’s certain.”

“Yes, but you see I couldn’t appear in it again very well.”

“Any strange gentleman you mid meet in your journey might notice the

set of it, I suppose. Fancy, men in love don’t think so much about how

they look to other women.” It is difficult to say whether a tone of

playful banter or of gentle reproach prevailed in the speech.

“Well then, Dick,” she said, with good-humoured frankness, “I’ll own

it. I shouldn’t like a stranger to see me dressed badly, even though I

am in love. ’Tis our nature, I suppose.”

“You perfect woman!”

“Yes; if you lay the stress on ‘woman,’” she murmured, looking at a

group of hollyhocks in flower, round which a crowd of butterflies had

gathered like female idlers round a bonnet-shop.

“But about the dress. Why not wear the one you wore at our party?”

“That sets well, but a girl of the name of Bet Tallor, who lives near

our house, has had one made almost like it (only in pattern, though of

miserably cheap stuff), and I couldn’t wear it on that account. Dear

me, I am afraid I can’t go now.”

“O yes, you must; I know you will!” said Dick, with dismay. “Why not

wear what you’ve got on?”

“What! this old one! After all, I think that by wearing my gray one

Saturday, I can make the blue one do for Sunday. Yes, I will. A hat or

a bonnet, which shall it be? Which do I look best in?”

“Well, I think the bonnet is nicest, more quiet and matronly.”

“What’s the objection to the hat? Does it make me look old?”

“O no; the hat is well enough; but it makes you look rather too—you

won’t mind me saying it, dear?”

“Not at all, for I shall wear the bonnet.”

“—Rather too coquettish and flirty for an engaged young woman.”

She reflected a minute. “Yes; yes. Still, after all, the hat would do

best; hats _are_ best, you see. Yes, I must wear the hat, dear Dicky,

because I ought to wear a hat, you know.”

PART THE FOURTH—AUTUMN