
    »Have you seen Cecily herself?« Elgar asked, leaving the point aside in his
eagerness to come to what concerned him more deeply.
    »No.«
    »I have waited for your permission to visit her. Do you mean to refuse it?«
    »No. If you call to-morrow morning, you will be admitted. Mrs. Lessingham is
willing that you should see her niece in private.«
    »Hearty thanks for that, Mallard! We haven't shaken hands yet, you remember.
Forgive me for treating you so ill.«
    He held out his hand cordially, and Mallard could not refuse it, though he
would rather have thrust his fingers among red coals than feel that hot
pressure.
    »I believe I can be grateful,« pursued Elgar, in a voice that quivered with
transport. »I will do my best to prove it.«
    »Let us speak of things more to the point. What result do you foresee of
this meeting to-morrow?«
    The other hesitated.
    »I shall ask Cecily when she will marry me.«
    »You may do so, of course, but the answer cannot depend upon herself alone.«
    »What delay do you think necessary?«
    »Until she is of age, and her own mistress,« replied Mallard, with quiet
decision.
    »Impossible! What need is there to wait all that time?«
    »Why, there is this need, Elgar,« returned the other, more vigorously than
he had yet spoken. »There is need that you should prove to those who desire Miss
Doran's welfare that you are something more than a young fellow fresh from a
life of waste and idleness and everything that demonstrates or tends to
untrustworthiness. It seems to me that a couple of years or so is not an
over-long time for this, all things considered.«
    Elgar kept silent.
    »You would have seen nothing objectionable in immediate marriage?« said
Mallard.
    »It is useless to pretend that I should.«
    »Not even from the point of view of Mrs. Lessingham and myself?«
    »You yourself have never spoken plainly about such things in my hearing; but
I find you in most things a man of your time. And it doesn't seem to me that
Mrs. Lessingham is exactly conventional in her views.«
    »You imagine yourself worthy of such a wife at present?«
    »Plainly, I do. It would be the merest hypocrisy if I said anything else. If
Cecily loves me, my love for her is at
