“That’s just it,” said the squire.  “It would be a great comfort to me.  And if he and Bell could make up their minds together, it would, I should think, be a great comfort to you also.”

“Bernard and Bell!” exclaimed Mrs Dale.  No idea of such a union had ever yet come upon her, and now in her surprise she sat silent.  She had always liked Bernard Dale, having felt for him more family affection than for any other of the Dale family beyond her own hearth.  He had been very intimate in her house, having made himself almost as a brother to her girls.  But she had never thought of him as a husband for either of them.

“Then Bell has not spoken to you about it,” said the squire.

“Never a word.”

“And you had never thought about it?”

“Certainly not.”

“I have thought about it a great deal.  For some years I have always been thinking of it.  I have set my heart upon it, and shall be very unhappy if it cannot be brought about.  They are both very dear to me,—­dearer than anybody else.  If I could see them man and wife, I should not much care then how soon I left the old place to them.”

There was a purer touch of feeling in this than the squire had ever before shown in his sister-in-law’s presence, and more heartiness than she had given him the credit of possessing.  And she could not but acknowledge to herself that her own child was included in this unexpected warmth of love, and that she was bound at any rate to entertain some gratitude for such kindness.

“It is good of you to think of her,” said the mother; “very good.”

“I think a great deal about her,” said the squire.  “But that does not much matter now.  The fact is, that she has declined Bernard’s offer.”

“Has Bernard offered to her?”

“So he tells me; and she has refused him.  It may perhaps be natural that she should do so, never having taught herself to look at him in the light of a lover.  I don’t blame her at all.  I am not angry with her.”

“Angry with her!  No.  You can hardly be angry with her for not being in love with her cousin.”

“I say that I am not angry with her.  But I think she might undertake to consider the question.  You would like such a match, would you not?”

Mrs Dale did not at first make any answer, but began to revolve the thing in her mind, and to look at it in various points of view.  There was a great deal in such an arrangement which at the first sight recommended it to her very strongly.  All the local circumstances were in its favour.  As regarded herself it would promise to her all that she had ever desired.  It would give her a prospect of seeing very much of Lily; for if Bell were settled at the old family house, Crosbie would naturally be much with his friend.  She liked Bernard also; and for a moment or two fancied, as she turned it all over in her mind, that, even yet, if such a marriage were to take place, there might grow up something like true regard between her and the old squire.  How happy would be her old age in that Small House, if Bell with her children were living so close to her!