The offended lady was on a sofa, in the solitary drawing-room.  Geoffrey sat down by her.  She declined to look at him.  “Don’t be a fool!” said Geoffrey, in his most persuasive manner.  Mrs. Glenarm put her handkerchief to her eyes.  Geoffrey took it away again without ceremony.  Mrs. Glenarm rose to leave the room.  Geoffrey stopped her by main force.  Mrs. Glenarm threatened to summon the servants.  Geoffrey said, “All right!  I don’t care if the whole house knows I’m fond of you!” Mrs. Glenarm looked at the door, and whispered “Hush! for Heaven’s sake!” Geoffrey put her arm in his, and said, “Come along with me:  I’ve got something to say to you.”  Mrs. Glenarm drew back, and shook her head.  Geoffrey put his arm round her waist, and walked her out of the room, and out of the house—­taking the direction, not of the terrace, but of a fir plantation on the opposite side of the grounds.  Arrived among the trees, he stopped and held up a warning forefinger before the offended lady’s face.  “You’re just the sort of woman I like,” he said; “and there ain’t a man living who’s half as sweet on you as I am.  You leave off bullying me about Perry, and I’ll tell you what I’ll do—­I’ll let you see me take a Sprint.”

He drew back a step, and fixed his big blue eyes on her, with a look which said, “You are a highly-favored woman, if ever there was one yet!” Curiosity instantly took the leading place among the emotions of Mrs. Glenarm.  “What’s a Sprint, Geoffrey?” she asked.

“A short run, to try me at the top of my speed.  There ain’t another living soul in all England that I’d let see it but you. Now am I a brute?”

Mrs. Glenarm was conquered again, for the hundredth time at least.  She said, softly, “Oh, Geoffrey, if you could only be always like this!” Her eyes lifted themselves admiringly to his.  She took his arm again of her own accord, and pressed it with a loving clasp.  Geoffrey prophetically felt the ten thousand a year in his pocket.  “Do you really love me?” whispered Mrs. Glenarm.  “Don’t I!” answered the hero.  The peace was made, and the two walked on again.

They passed through the plantation, and came out on some open ground, rising and falling prettily, in little hillocks and hollows.  The last of the hillocks sloped down into a smooth level plain, with a fringe of sheltering trees on its farther side—­with a snug little stone cottage among the trees—­and with a smart little man, walking up and down before the cottage, holding his hands behind him.  The level plain was the hero’s exercising ground; the cottage was the hero’s retreat; and the smart little man was the hero’s trainer.

If Mrs. Glenarm hated Perry, Perry (judging by appearances) was in no danger of loving Mrs. Glenarm.  As Geoffrey approached with his companion, the trainer came to a stand-still, and stared silently at the lady.  The lady, on her side, declined to observe that any such person as the trainer was then in existence, and present in bodily form on the scene.