About a week after Mr Lawrence Croft had had his conversation with Miss
March on the stile steps at Midbranch, he was obliged to return to his
home in New York. He was not a man of business, but he had business;
and, besides this, he considered if he continued much longer to reside
in the utterly attractionless cottage at the Green Sulphur Springs, and
rode over every day to the very attractive house at Midbranch, that the
points mentioned in the previous chapter might get themselves reversed.
He was a man who was proud of being, under all circumstances, frank and
honest with himself. He did not wish, if it could be avoided, to deceive
other people, but he was prudent and careful about exhibiting his
motives and intended course of action to his associates. Himself,
however, he took into his strictest confidence. He was fond of the idea
that he went into the battle of life covered and protected by a great
shield, but that the inside of the shield was a mirror in which he could
always see himself. Looking into this mirror, he now saw that, if he did
not soon get away from Miss Roberta, he would lay down his shield and
surrender, and it was his intent that this should not happen until he
wished it to happen.

It was very natural when Lawrence reached New York, that he should take
pleasure in talking about Miss Roberta March and her family with any one
who knew them. He was particularly anxious, if he could do so delicately
and without exciting any suspicion of his object, to know as much as
possible about Sylvester March, the lady's father. In doing this, he did
not feel that he was prying into the affairs of others, but he could not
be true to himself unless he looked well in advance before he made the
step on which his mind was set. It was in this way that he happened to
learn that about two years before, Miss March had been engaged to be