“So am I. But we must give him time to get reconciled.  Never fear but he will like it in the long run; he has too much good taste and good feeling.  He must like you.”

Frank did not choose to tell even Maggie how violently his father had set himself against their engagement.  He was surprised and annoyed at first to find how decidedly his father was possessed with the idea that he was to marry his cousin, and that she, at any rate, was attached to him, whatever his feelings might be toward her; but after he had gone frankly to Erminia and told her all, he found that she was as ignorant of her uncle’s plans for her as he had been; and almost as glad at any event which should frustrate them.

Indeed she came to the moorland cottage on the following day, after Frank had returned to Cambridge.  She had left her horse in charge of the groom, near the fir-trees on the heights, and came running down the slope in her habit.  Maggie went out to meet her, with just a little wonder at her heart if what Frank had said could possibly be true; and that Erminia, living in the house with him, could have remained indifferent to him.  Erminia threw her arms round her neck, and they sat down together on the court-steps.

“I durst not ride down that hill; and Jem is holding my horse, so I may not stay very long; now begin, Maggie, at once, and go into a rhapsody about Frank.  Is not he a charming fellow?  Oh!  I am so glad.  Now don’t sit smiling and blushing there to yourself; but tell me a great deal about it.  I have so wanted to know somebody that was in love, that I might hear what it was like; and the minute I could, I came off here.  Frank is only just gone.  He has had another long talk with my uncle, since he came back from you this morning; but I am afraid he has not made much way yet.”

Maggie sighed.  “I don’t wonder at his not thinking me good enough for Frank.

“No! the difficulty would be to find any one he did think fit for his paragon of a son.”

“He thought you were, dearest Erminia.”

“So Frank has told you that, has he?  I suppose we shall have no more family secrets now,” said Erminia, laughing.  “But I can assure you I had a strong rival in lady Adela Castlemayne, the Duke of Wight’s daughter; she was the most beautiful lady my uncle had ever seen (he only saw her in the Grand Stand at Woodchester races, and never spoke a word to her in his life).  And if she would have had Frank, my uncle would still have been dissatisfied as long as the Princess Victoria was unmarried; none would have been good enough while a better remained.  But Maggie,” said she, smiling up into her friend’s face, “I think it would have made you laugh, for all you look as if a kiss would shake the tears out of your eyes, if you could have seen my uncle’s manner to me all day.  He will have it that I am suffering from an unrequited attachment; so he watched me and watched me over breakfast; and at last, when I had eaten a whole nest-full of eggs, and I don’t know how many pieces of toast, he rang the bell and asked for some potted charr.  I was quite unconscious that it was for me, and I did not want it when it came; so he sighed in a most melancholy manner, and said, ’My poor Erminia!’ If Frank had not been there, and looking dreadfully miserable, I am sure I should have laughed out.”