me.” [35] Mrs. Pendrill mused a little while. “Has this Mr. Trevlyn any family?” “I do not know. Father did not speak of a wife. I fancy he is an old bachelor.” [36] [36] “He is old, then?” “I fancy he is elderly, or at any rate middle-aged, or father would hardly care to have him on a visit. He must be younger than father, of course, but I do not know anything more about him. Oh, it will be very hard; but if he will only be good to Arthur, I will try to bear the rest.” “I am sure you will, my Monica,” said Mrs. Pendrill tenderly. “I am sure you will never be ungenerous or act unworthily. A dark cloud seems hanging over your life, but there is light behind, though we cannot always see it. And, remember, my darling, that gold shines all the brighter for having been tried in the furnace.” “I know the fellow,” said Tom Pendrill, an hour later, when Monica had gone, and [37]he had heard from his aunt part of what had passed between them. “Monica is out about his age; he can’t be more than six or seven and twenty, and a right good fellow he is too, and would make my lady a capital husband, if he is not married already. Randolph Trevlyn was at Oxford; I knew him there pretty well, though he was only an undergraduate when I had taken my degree. The name sounded home-like, and I made friends with him. He wasn’t anywhere near the title then, but I suppose there have been deaths in the family since. Well, well, the earl is quite right to have him down, and if he could manage to fall in love with Monica and marry her, it would simplify matters wonderfully; but that wild bird will need a good deal of training before she will [38]come at a husband’s call, and there is such a thing as spreading the snare too much in the sight of the quarry.” [37] [38] No thought of this kind, however, entered into Monica’s head. She was far too unversed in the ways of the
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