“Now I do fail to understand you. What on earth can I have to do with it?”
“You have a great deal more to do with it than you can guess. If my marks are very good—particularly my marks as regards conduct—I shall go. And, oh, I am so anxious to go! And if by any chance I could win the Royal Cross, then indeed I should be safe.”
“And suppose you did win it, would that be your object?”
“Oh! besides that there would be many others; but that too. Can you blame me, Uncle Peter? It would so please my parents!”
“No, I cannot blame you, Augusta; and, without giving myself away in any manner, I may as well say that you have at least as good a chance as the others.”
“Have I indeed? Have I truly? Oh, how very happy you have made me!”
“Continue to behave well, Augusta, and nobody knows what will happen.” He rose as he spoke.
“I am bound,” he thought, “after the excellence of Augusta’s marks, to give her that much encouragement, but surely never before was there man so disappointed.—I am going into the woods,” he said aloud. “Good-bye for the present.”
“Oh! one word, please, before you go. What do you say to our walking through the woods and having a gipsy tea there this afternoon?”
“If your cousins like it, Augusta, I am quite agreeable. Do you prefer the woods to the seashore?”