I was too young and inexperienced to take a worldly view of things, and from this moment felt disposed to distrust Mr. Egerton.  I remembered the story of his early attachment, and told myself that a man who had loved once like that had in all probability worn out his powers of loving.

’I don’t think Mr. Darrell would approve of, or even permit, such a marriage,’ I said presently.  ’I know he has a very bad opinion of Mr. Egerton.’

‘On what account?’

‘On account of his conduct to his mother.’

‘No one knows the secret of that affair except Angus himself,’ answered Mrs. Collingwood.  ’I don’t think any one has a right to think badly of him upon that ground.  I knew Mrs. Egerton very well.  She was a proud hard woman, capable of almost anything in order to accomplish any set purpose of her own.  Up to the time when he went to Oxford Angus had been an excellent son.’

‘Was it at Oxford he met the girl he wanted to marry?’

’No; it was somewhere in the west of England, where he went on a walking tour during the long vacation.’

’He must have loved her very much, to act as he did.  I should doubt his power ever to love any one else.’

’That is quite a girl’s way of thinking, my dear Miss Crofton.  Depend upon it, after that kind of stormy first love, there generally comes a better and truer feeling.  Angus was little more than a boy then.  He is in the prime of manhood now, able to judge wisely, and not easily to be caught, or he would have married in all those years abroad.’

This seemed reasonable enough; but I was vexed, nevertheless, by Mrs. Collingwood’s match-making notions, which seemed to disturb the peaceful progress of our lives.  After this I looked upon every invitation to the Rectory—­where we never went without meeting Mr. Egerton—­as a kind of snare; but our visits there were always very pleasant, and I grew in time to think with more indulgence of the Rector’s wife’s desire for her favourite’s advantage.

In all this time Angus Egerton had in no manner betrayed the state of his feelings.  If he met us in our walks oftener than seemed possible by mere chance, there was nothing strictly lover-like in his tone or conduct.  But I have seen his face light up as he met my dear girl at these times, and I have noticed a certain softening of his voice as he talked to her, that I never heard on other occasions.

And she?  About her feelings I had much less doubt.  She tried her uttermost to hide the truth from me, ashamed of her regard for one who had never yet professed to be more than a friend; but I knew that she loved him.  It was impossible, in the perfect companionship and confidence of our lives, for Milly to keep this first secret of her pure young heart hidden from me.  I knew that she loved him; and I began to look forward anxiously to Mr. Darrell’s return, which would relieve me of all responsibility, and perhaps put an end to our friendship with Angus Egerton.