“By George!—­can I do it?”

“Oh, yes, yes, yes!” said Lydia eagerly, driving her needle into the sofa cushion.  “You’ll reform him!”

Faversham laughed.

“He’s a tough customer.  He has already warned me I am not to manage his estates like a Socialist.”

“No—­but like a human being!” cried Lydia, indignantly—­“that’s all we want.  Come and talk to Lord Tatham!”

“Parley with my employer’s opponent!”

“Under a flag of truce,” laughed Lydia, “and this shall be the neutral ground.  You shall meet here—­and mamma and I will hold the lists.”

“You think—­under those circumstances—­we should get through much business?” His dark eyes, full of gaiety, searched hers.  She flushed a little.

“Ah, well, you should have the chance anyway.”

Faversham rose unwillingly to go.  Lydia bent forward, listening.

“At last—­here comes my mother.”

For outside in the little hall there was suddenly much chatter and swishing of skirts.  Some one came laughing to the drawing-room and threw it open.  Mrs. Penfold, flushed and excited, stood in the doorway.

“My dear, did you ever know such kind people!”

Her arms were laden with flowers, and with parcels of different sorts.  Susy came behind, carrying two great pots of Japanese lilies.

“You said you’d like to see those old drawings of Keswick—­by I forget whom.  Lady Tatham has sent you the whole set—­they had them—­you may keep them as long as you like.  And Lord Tatham has sent flowers.  Just look at those roses!” Mrs. Penfold put down the basket heaped with them at Lydia’s feet, while Susy—­demurely—­did the same with the lilies.  “And there is a fascinating parcel of books for Susy—­all the new reviews! ... Oh!  Mr. Faversham—­I declare—­why, I never saw you!”

Voluble excuses and apologies followed.  Meanwhile Lydia, with a bright colour, stood bewildered, the flowers all about her, and the drawings in her hands.  Faversham escaped as soon as he could.  As he approached Lydia to say good-bye, she looked up, put the drawings aside, and hurriedly came with him to the door.

“Accept!” she said.  “Be sure you accept!”

He had a last vision of her standing in the dark hall, and of her soft, encouraging look.  As he drove away, two facts stood out in consciousness:  first, that he was falling fast and deep in love; next, that—­by the look of things—­he had a rival, with whom, in the opinion of all practical people, it would be mere folly for him to think of competing.

BOOK II

X

While Faversham was driving back to Threlfall, his mind possessed by a tumult of projects and images—­which was a painful tumult, because his physical strength was not yet equal to coping with it—­a scene was passing in a bare cottage beside the Ulls-water road, whence in due time one of those events was to arise which we call sudden or startling only because we are ignorant of the slow [Greek:  ananke ] which has produced them.