"I wish you would go and tell her I want her here, Sara."
Sara slipped by the doctor, passed over the cool lawn to the distant sunny paths, and met her cousin.
Caroline recoiled in her self-conscious timidity. "What about?" she whispered. "Did he say what about?"
"I think," said Sara slowly, scarcely knowing whether she was doing right to speak or not, "that it is something about Mr. Cray."
For a moment Caroline made no rejoinder. She walked on and had nearly gained the lawn when she turned her head again. Sara had lingered behind.
"Sara! Sara! Did he seem angry?" she whispered.
Dr. Davenal stood at the glass doors still. He put out his hand as she approached him.
"Mr. Cray has been making an application to me concerning you. Caroline, were you cognisant of it?"
"Now, Uncle Richard! If you are going to be cross, I--I shall be so unhappy."
"When did you ever know me cross?" he gravely rejoined, and Caroline Davenal burst into tears.
"Caroline, my dear, we must put away this childishness. You are but affecting it, and this is a serious moment. I must talk to you very earnestly. Come in, Sara. It is cooler indoors than out."
Sara, who in her delicacy of feeling would have remained outside, went within the room and sat down to the table with her book. Caroline had dried her passing tears, and was stealing a glance at Dr. Davenal.
"If I am, Caroline, it is for your sake; a loving anger. My chief emotion, I believe, is surprise. I never gave a thought to this; not a suspicion of it crossed me."
"I fancied you must have guessed it," was the murmured answer.
"Guessed that! No, child. But the blindness was my own, I believe. When we ourselves place one view deliberately before us, it tends to shut out others. I had got it into my head, Carine, that it was to your score we were indebted for the frequent visits of Mr. Oswald Cray."
Caroline lifted her face, and Dr. Davenal observed how genuine was the surprise depicted on it. "Uncle Richard!"
"I see. I see now, child, that the idea was void of foundation. But, Caroline," he gravely added, "I would rather it had been Oswald than Mark. All the world must respect Oswald Cray."
"I should think it _was_ void of foundation!" indignantly returned Caroline, resenting the disparagement cast on Mark. "Why, Uncle Richard, Oswald Cray likes Sara a thousand times better than he likes me! But not with that sort of liking," she hastened to add, lest a construction should be put upon the words which most certainly she never meant to put. "General liking, I mean. Oswald Cray's heart is buried in his ambition, in his busy life; he gives little thought to aught else. Uncle Richard, I would not many Oswald Cray if he were worth his weight in gold. He would find fault with me all day long."