“Belief?” he echoed.
“Yes,” she said, “belief that—that you had a future. I can't describe it,” she continued, the colour coming into her face again; “one feels that way about some people without being able to put the feeling into words. And have a feeling, too, that I should like you to be friends with my father.”
Neither of them, perhaps, realized the rapidity with which “accidental acquaintance” had melted into intimacy. Austen's blood ran faster, but it was characteristic of him that he tried to steady himself, for he was a Vane. He had thought of her many times during the past year, but gradually the intensity of the impression had faded until it had been so unexpectedly and vividly renewed to-day. He was not a man to lose his head, and the difficulties of the situation made him pause and choose his words, while he dared not so much as glance at her as she sat in the sunlight beside him.
“I should like to be friends with your father,” he answered gravely,—the statement being so literally true as to have its pathetically humorous aspect.
“I'll tell him so, Mr. Vane,” she said.
Austen turned, with a seriousness that dismayed her.
“I must ask you as a favour not to do that,” he said.
“Why?” she asked.
“In the first place,” he answered quietly, “I cannot afford to have Mr. Flint misunderstand my motives. And I ought not to mislead you,” he went on. “In periods of public controversy, such as we are passing through at present, sometimes men's views differ so sharply as to make intercourse impossible. Your father and I might not agree—politically, let us say. For instance,” he added, with evident hesitation, “my father and I disagree.”
Victoria was silent. And presently they came to a wire fence overgrown with Virginia creeper, which divided the shaded road from a wide lawn.