"I don't deny I am fond of taking meals in the open air, and more especially on the top of the moor," said Sarah, with a sigh of content.
"What has she come for?" said Peter.
"I shall be better able to tell you when I have seen her."
"Don't you know?"
"I can pretty well guess. She's going to forgive me, for one thing. Then she'll tell me that I don't deserve my good luck, but that Lord Avonwick is so patient and so long-suffering, that he's accepted her assurance that I don't know my own mind (and I'm not sure I do), and he's going to give me one more chance to become Lady Avonwick, though I was so foolish as to say 'No' to his last offer."
"You didn't say 'No' to my last offer!" cried Peter.
"I don't believe an offer of marriage is even legal before you're one-and-twenty," said Miss Sarah, derisively. "What did it matter what I said? Haven't I told you I was only playing?"
"You may tell me so a thousand times," said Peter, doggedly, "but I shall never believe you until I see you actually married to somebody else."
CHAPTER XX
Lady Tintern was pleased to leave Paddington by a much earlier train than could have been expected. She hired a fly, and a pair of broken-kneed horses, at Brawnton, and once more took her relations at Hewelscourt by surprise. On this occasion, however, she was not fortunate enough to find her invalid niece at play in the stable-yard, though she detected her at luncheon, and warmly congratulated her upon her robust appearance and her excellent appetite.