do honour to the carriage and the bravery when it should be forthcoming.  And then such a marriage as this would put an end to all the trouble which he felt in reference to the entail on the estate.  He knew that he was to be master of Belton, and of course had, in that knowledge, the satisfaction which men do feel from the consciousness of their future prosperity.  And this with him was enhanced by a strong sympathy with old-fashioned prejudices as to family.  He would be Belton of Belton; and there had been Beltons of Belton in old days, for a longer time backwards than he was able to count.  But still the prospect had not been without its alloy, and he had felt real distress at the idea of turning his cousin out of her father’s house.  Such a marriage as that he now contemplated would put all these things right.

When he got up in the morning he was quite as keen about it as he had been on the previous evening and as he thought about it the more, he became keener and still more keen.  On the previous evening, as he was leaning out of the window endeavouring to settle in his own mind what would be the proper conduct of the romance of the thing, he had considered that he had better not make his proposal quite at once.  He was to remain eight days at Belton, and as eight days was not a long period of acquaintance, he had reflected that it might be well for him to lay what foundation for love it might be in his power to construct during his present sojourn, and then return and complete the work before Christmas.  But as he was shaving himself, the habitual impatience of his nature predominated, and he became disposed to think that delay would be useless, and might perhaps be dangerous.  It might be possible that Clara would be unable to give him a decisive answer so quickly as to enable him to return home an accepted lover; but if such doubt were left, such doubt would give him an excuse for a speedy return to Belton.  He did not omit to tell himself that very probably he might not succeed at all.  He was a man not at all apt to feel assurance that he could carry all before him in love.  But in this matter, as in all others which required from him any personal effort, he prepared himself to do his best, leaving the consequences to follow as they might.  When he threw his seed corn into the earth with all such due appliances of agricultural skill and industry as his capital and experience enabled him to use, he did his part towards the production of next year’s crop; and after that he must leave it to a higher Power to give to him, or to withhold from him, the reward of his labour.  He had found that, as a rule, the reward had been given when the labour had been honest; and he was now prepared to follow the same plan, with the same hopes, in this matter of his love-making.