'
Elizabeth--rather weakly--put up a protesting hand.
'I am afraid I must point out to you, Mr. Mannering, that Mrs.
Gaddesden will be waiting lunch.'
'If I know Alice, she will not wait lunch! And anyway there are
things more important than lunch. May I take it for granted, Miss
Bremerton, that you have not been altogether dissatisfied with your
life here during this six months?'
Elizabeth looked him gravely in the face. It was clear there was to
be no escape.
'How could I have been, Mr. Mannering? You have taught me a great,
great deal--and given me wonderful opportunities.'
The Squire nodded, with a look of satisfaction.
'I meant to. Of course Chicksands would say that it was only my
own laziness--that I have given you the work I ought to have done
myself. My reply would be that it was not my work. If a man
happens to be born to a job he is not in the least fitted for,
that's the affair of Providence. Providence bungled it when he,
she, or it--take which pronoun you like--[Greek: tyche], as you
and I know, is feminine--made me a landowner.
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