"The puppy! I beg your pardon, I forgot he was your cousin."
"You need not apologise on that score. There is not much love lost between us; and as for Elise, I never knew her inclined to be inhospitable to anybody but him."
"Was she to him?"
"She was heartily glad to see the last of him, and so I suspect were some other people."
"What people?"
"Mrs. Costello for one. He was more at the Cottage than she seemed to like."
Maurice hesitated, but could not resist asking a question.
"Was he as much there afterwards as he was before the time I left?"
"More, I think. Look here, Maurice; Elise first put it into my head that he was running after Lucia, but I saw it plainly enough myself afterwards, and I know you saw it too. I think we are old enough friends for me to speak to you on such a subject. Well, my belief is, that before Percy went away, he proposed to Lucia."
"Proposed? Impossible!"