“Lady Tintern!” cried Peter, in dismay.  “Then you won’t be able to come to Barracombe this evening?”

“I am not in the habit of throwing over a dinner engagement,” said Sarah, with dignity.  “But in case they won’t let me come,” she added, with great inconsistency, “I’ll put a lighted candle in the top window of the tower, as usual.  But you can guess how many more of these enjoyable expeditions we shall be allowed to make.  Not that we need regret them if they are all to be as lively as this one.  Still—­”

She helped herself to a jam-puff, and offered the dish to Peter, with an engaging smile.  He helped himself absently.

“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.

Her journey had, no doubt, been undertaken with the very intentions Sarah had described; but another motive also prompted her, which Sarah had not divined.

Much as she desired to marry her grand-niece to Lord Avonwick, she was not blind to the young man’s personal disadvantages, which were undeniable; and which Peter had rudely summed up in a word by alluding to his rival as an ass.  He was distinguished among the admirers of Miss Sarah’s red and white beauty by his brainlessness no less than by his eligibility.

Nevertheless, Lady Tintern had favoured his suit.  She knew him to be a good fellow, although he was a simpleton, and she was very sure that he loved Sarah sincerely.