“You are on the way to my house, I presume,” he said.

Mr Croft assured him that he was, and hoped that Miss March was quite well.

“I have been from home for a little while,” said Mr Brandon, “but I believe my niece enjoys her usual health.  I have had a long ride this morning,” he continued, “and feel a little tired.  Would it inconvenience you, sir, if we should dismount and sit for a time on yonder log by the roadside?  It would rest me, and I would like to have a little talk with you.”

Lawrence wondered very much that the old gentleman should want to rest when he was not a mile from his own house, but of course he consented to the proposed plan, and imitated Mr Brandon by riding under a large tree, and fastening his bridle to a low-hanging bough.  The two gentlemen seated themselves on the log, and Mr Brandon, without preface, began his remarks.

“May I be pardoned for supposing, sir,” he said, “that your present visit to my house is intended for my niece?”

Lawrence looked at him a little earnestly, and replied that it was so intended.

“Then, sir, I think I have the right to ask, as my niece’s present guardian, and almost indeed as her father, whether or not your visit is connected in any way with matrimonial overtures toward that lady?”

Not wishing to foolishly and dishonorably deny that such was his purpose in going to Midbranch; and feeling that it would be as unwise to decline answering the question as it would be unmanly to resort to subterfuge about it, Lawrence replied, that his object in visiting Miss March that day was to make matrimonial overtures to her.

“I think,” said Mr Brandon, “that you will be obliged to me if I make you acquainted with the present condition of affairs between Miss March and Mr Junius Keswick.”

“Has not their engagement been broken off?” interrupted Lawrence.

“Only conditionally,” answered the old gentleman.  “They love each other.  They wish to be married.  With one exception, all their relatives desire that they should marry.  It would be a union, not only congenial in the highest degree to the parties concerned, but of the greatest advantage to our family and our family fortunes.  There is but a single obstacle to this most desirable union, and that is the unwarrantable opposition of one person.  But, I am happy to say that this opposition is on the point of being removed.  I consider it to be but a matter of days when my niece and Mr Keswick, with the full approbation of the relatives on either side, will renew in the eyes of the world that engagement which I consider still exists in fact.”

“If this is so,” said Lawrence, grinding his heel very deeply into the ground, “why was I not told of it?”

“My dear sir!” exclaimed Mr Brandon, “have you ever intimated to me or to any of my family, that your intentions in visiting Midbranch were other than those of an ordinary friend or acquaintance?”