“Laetitia will be happy, you may be sure.  I love to see a long and faithful attachment rewarded—­love it!  Her tale is the triumph of patience.  Far above Grizzel!  No woman will be ashamed of pointing to Lady Patterne.  You are uncertain?  You are in doubt?  Let me hear—­as low as you like.  But there is no doubt of the new shifting of the scene?—­no doubt of the proposal?  Dear Mr. Dale! a very little louder.  You are here because—? of course you wish to see Sir Willoughby.  She?  I did not catch you quite.  She? . . . it seems, you say . . . ?”

Lady Culmer said to the Patterne ladies:—­

“You must have had a distressing time.  These affairs always mount up to a climax, unless people are very well bred.  We saw it coming.  Naturally we did not expect such a transformation of brides:  who could?  If I had laid myself down on my back to think, I should have had it.  I am unerring when I set to speculating on my back.  One is cooler:  ideas come; they have not to be forced.  That is why I am brighter on a dull winter afternoon, on the sofa, beside my tea-service, than at any other season.  However, your trouble is over.  When did the Middletons leave?”

“The Middletons leave?” said the ladies.

“Dr. Middleton and his daughter.”

“They have not left us.”

“The Middletons are here?”

“They are here, yes.  Why should they have left Patterne?”

“Why?”

“Yes.  They are likely to stay some days longer.”

“Goodness!”

“There is no ground for any report to the contrary, Lady Culmer.”

“No ground!”

Lady Culmer called out to Lady Busshe.

A cry came back from that startled dame.

“She has refused him!”

“Who?”

“She has.”

“She?—­Sir Willoughby?”

“Refused!—­declines the honour.”

“Oh, never!  No, that carries the incredible beyond romance.  But is he perfectly at . . .”

“Quite, it seems.  And she was asked in due form and refused.”

“No, and no again!”

“My dear, I have it from Mr. Dale.”

“Mr. Dale, what can be the signification of her conduct?”

“Indeed, Lady Culmer,” said Mr. Dale, not unpleasantly agitated by the interest he excited, in spite of his astonishment at a public discussion of the matter in this house, “I am in the dark.  Her father should know, but I do not.  Her door is locked to me; I have not seen her.  I am absolutely in the dark.  I am a recluse.  I have forgotten the ways of the world.  I should have supposed her father would first have been addressed.”

“Tut-tut.  Modern gentlemen are not so formal; they are creatures of impulse and take a pride in it.  He spoke.  We settle that.  But where did you get this tale of a refusal?”

“I have it from Dr. Middleton.”

“From Dr. Middleton?” shouted Lady Busshe.

“The Middletons are here,” said Lady Culmer.