After lunch her mother called Pauline aside and told her that now was the moment to impress the Rector with the fact of her engagement. The tradition was that her father went up to his library for half an hour every day in order to rest after lunch before he sallied out into the garden or the parish. As usual, his rest was consisting of standing on a chair and dragging down old numbers of The Botanical Magazine or heavy volumes of The Garden in order to search out a fact in connection with some plant. When Pauline and Guy presented themselves the Rector gave them a cordial invitation to enter, and Pauline fancied that he was being quite exceptionally kindly in his tone towards Guy.
"Well, and what can I do for you two?" he asked, as he lit his long clay pipe and sat upright in his old leather arm-chair to regard them.
"Father," said Pauline, coming straight to the heart of her subject, "have you seen my engagement ring?"
She offered him the pink topaz to admire, and he bowed his head, conveying that faint mockery with which he treated anything that was not a flower.
"Very fine. Very fine, my dear."
"Well, aren't you going to congratulate me?" Pauline asked.
"On what?"
"Oh, Father, you are naughty. On Guy, of course."
"Bless my heart," said the Rector. "And on what am I to congratulate him?"
"On me, of course," said Pauline.