now to come to easy terms than he would have been had he suffered in the combat.
'Well,' he said after a while, 'I'm sure I'm very much obliged to you for the manner in which you have taken what I said to you. Nobody knows about it yet, I suppose; and perhaps, if you will talk to the governor———'
'I will talk to him, Mr. Orme.'
'Thank you; and then perhaps all things may turn out right. I'll go and dress now.' And so saying he took his departure, leaving her to consider how best she might act at this crisis of her life, so that things might go right, if such were possible. The more she thought of it, the less possible it seemed that her affairs should be made to go right.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
OH, INDEED!
The dinner on that day at The Cleeve was not very dull. Peregrine had some hopes that the idea of the marriage might be abandoned, and was at any rate much better disposed towards Lady Mason than he had been. He spoke to her, asking her whether she had been out, and suggesting roast mutton or some such creature comfort. This was lost neither on Sir Peregrine nor on Mrs. Orme, and they both exerted themselves to say a few words in a more cheery tone than had been customary in the house for the last day or two. Lady Mason herself did not say much; but she had sufficient tact to see the effort which was being made; and though she spoke but little she smiled and accepted graciously the courtesies that were tendered to her.
Then the two ladies went away, and Peregrine was again left with his grandfather. 'That was a nasty accident that Graham had going out of Monkton Grange,' said he, speaking on the moment of his closing the dining-room door after his mother. 'I suppose you heard all about it, sir?' Having fought his battle so well before dinner, he was determined to give some little rest to his half vanquished enemy.
'The first tidings we heard were that he was dead,' said Sir Peregtine, filling his glass.
'No; he wasn't dead. But of course you know that now. He broke an arm and two ribs, and got rather a bad squeeze. He was just behind me, you know, and I had to wait for him. I lost the run, and had to see Harriet Tristram go away with the best lead any one has had to a fast thing this year. That's an uncommon nasty place at the back of Monkton Grange.'
