“Waste of time!  With you!” smiled Fielding.

She lifted his hand with a shy movement and put it to her lips.  “Edward—­darling, you get dearer every day,” she murmured.  “What makes you so good to me?”

He leaned down and kissed her forehead.  “I happen to have found out—­quite by accident—­that I love you, my dear,” he said.

She smiled at him.  “What a happy accident!  Then we are really going for that voyage together?  What about—­Juliet?”

“Don’t you want Juliet?” he said.

“Yes, if she would come.  But I have a feeling—­I don’t know why—­that she will not be with us very long.  I should be sorry to part with her for we owe her so much.  But—­somehow she doesn’t quite fit, does she?  She would be much more suitable as—­Lady Saltash for instance.”

Fielding laughed.  “Saltash isn’t the only fish in the sea,” he remarked.

“You are thinking of—­Mr. Green?” she questioned, with slight hesitation before the name.  “You know, Edward—­” she broke off.

“Well, my dear?” he said.

She turned to him impulsively.  “I’m sorry I’ve not been nicer about that young man.  I’m going to try and like him better, just to please you.  But, Edward, you wouldn’t want Juliet to marry—­that sort of man?  You don’t, do you?”

Fielding had stiffened almost imperceptibly.  “It doesn’t much matter what I want,” he said, after a moment.  “It doesn’t rest with me.  Neither Dick nor Juliet are likely to consult my feelings in the matter.”

“I don’t want her to throw herself away—­like that,” said Vera.

“I don’t think you need be afraid,” he said.  “Juliet knows very well what she is about.  And Dick—­well Dick’s fool enough to sacrifice the heart out of his body for the sake of that half-witted boy.”

“How odd of him!” Vera said.  “What a pity Robin ever lived to grow up!”

“He’s been the ruin of Dick’s life,” the squire said forcibly.  “He’s thrown away every chance he ever had on account of Robin.  He doesn’t fit—­if you like.  He’s absolutely out of his sphere and knows it.  But he’ll never change it while that boy lives.  That’s the infernal part of it.  Nothing will move him.”  He stopped himself suddenly.  “I mustn’t excite you, my dear, and this is a subject upon which I feel very strongly.  I can’t expect you to sympathize because—­” he smiled whimsically—­“well, mainly because you don’t understand.  We had better talk of something else.”

Vera was looking at him with a slight frown between her eyes.  “I didn’t mean to be—­unsympathetic,” she said, a faint quiver in her voice.

“Of course not!  Of course not!” Hastily he sought to make amends.  “I don’t know how we got on the subject.  You must forgive me, my dear.  I believe I hear Juliet in the conservatory.  We won’t discuss this before her.”

He would have risen, but she detained him.  “Edward, just a moment!  I want to ask you something.”