"Yes, with tears in her eyes, this morning."
"Tears! This is incomprehensible. I have only been a single night under the same roof with Lady Loftus."
"Yet Cora has discovered your secret. Girls are quick-sighted in such matters, I can tell you."
"But why had Cora tears?"
"Don't for the life of me know, unless it be that she fears your love will be but moonshine in the water. They are a cold, calculating, and ambitious family, Lord Chillingham's, and will fly their hawk at higher game than mere landed gentry."
"She is a good girl, Cora," said I, thoughtfully
"If you have any fancy for Louisa Loftus, I will back you to any amount," said my blunt uncle, stoutly; "but I don't think my lady mother would relish such a suitor as a lieutenant of cavalry. I have already heard her hint that Lord Slubber has made proposals, with offers of a brilliant settlement; but the man is older than I, and could no more hunt a country or march up a snow-covered brae, as we do now, than fly through the air. At all events, don't throw your heart away farther than is necessary, and what is more, in the meantime, look sharp, I say."
"Sharp!" I exclaimed, bewildered by this odd jumble of advice. "How—why?"
"Don't you perceive what is going on?"
"What, uncle?"