“Robert,” said Mrs Keswick, very composedly “I do not wonder that my coming to you and accepting the proposals which you once so heartily made to me, and from which you have never gone back, should work a good deal upon your feelings.  It is quite natural, and I expected it.  Therefore don’t hesitate about speaking out your mind; I shall not be offended.  So that we belong to each other for the rest of our days, I don’t mind what you say now, when it is all new and unexpected to you.  You and I have had many a difference of opinion, Robert, and your plans were not my plans.  But things have turned out as you wished, and you have what you have always wanted; and with the other good things, Robert, you can take me.”  And, as she finished speaking, she held out both hands to her companion.

With a stamp of his foot, and a kick at a chair which stood in his way, Mr Brandon precipitately left the room, and slammed the door after him; and if Peggy had not nimbly sprung to one side, he would have stumbled over her, and have had a very bad fall for a man of his age.

It was not ten minutes after this, that, looking out of a window, Mrs Keswick saw a saddled horse brought into the back yard.  She hastened into the hall, and found Peggy.  “Run to Mr Brandon,” she said, “and bid him good-bye for me.  I am going up stairs to get ready to go home, and haven’t, time to speak to him, myself, before he starts on his ride.”

At the receipt of this message the heart of Mr Brandon gave a bound which actually helped him to get into the saddle, but he did not hesitate in his purpose of instant departure.  If he staid, but for a moment, she might come out to him, and change her mind, so he put spurs to his horse and galloped away, merely stopping long enough, as he passed the stables, to give orders that the carriage be prepared for Mrs Keswick, and taken round to the front.

As he rode through the cool air of that fine November afternoon, the spirits of Mr Brandon rose.  He felt a serene satisfaction in assuring himself that, although he had been very angry, indeed, with Mrs Keswick, on account of her most unheard of and outrageous conduct, yet he had not allowed his indignation to burst out against her in any way of which he would afterward be ashamed.  Some hasty words had escaped him, but they were of no importance, and, under the circumstances, no one could have avoided speaking them.  But, when he had addressed her at any length, he had spoken dispassionately and practically, and she, being at bottom a practical woman, had seen the sense of his advice, and had gone home comfortably in his carriage.  Whether she took her insane fancies home with her, or dropped them on the road, it mattered very little to him, so that he never saw her again; and he did not intend to see her again.  If she came again to his house, he would leave it and not return until she had gone; but he had no reason to suppose that he would be forced into any such exceedingly disagreeable action as this.  He did not believe she would ever come back.  For, unless she were really crazy—­crazy—­and in that case she ought to be put in the lunatic asylum—­she could not keep up, for any length of time, the extraordinary and outrageous delusion that he would be willing to renew the feelings that he had entertained for her in her youth.