of action. 'It all depends,' he said to himself, 'on that,--if what
Wallace says about her is true, if my opinion has really any weight with
her, I shall be able to manage it without offending her. It's good of her
to speak of me as kindly as she seems to do; I was anything but amiable
on that Surrey Sunday. However, I felt then that she liked me all the
better for plain-speaking; one may be tolerably safe with her that she
won't take offence unreasonably. What a picture she made as she pulled
the primroses to pieces--it seemed all up with one! And then her smile
flashing out--her eagerness to make amends--to sweep away a harsh
impression--her pretty gratefulness--enchanting!'

On Saturday, at lunch-time, Wallace rushed in for a few minutes to say
that he himself had avoided Miss Bretherton all the week, but that things
were coming to a crisis. 'I've just got this note from her,' he said
despairingly, spreading it out before Kendal, who was making a scrappy
bachelor meal, with a book on each side of him, at a table littered with
papers.

'Could anything be more prettily done? If you don't succeed to-morrow,
Kendal, I shall have signed the agreement before three days are over!'

It was indeed a charming note. She asked him to fix any time he chose for
an appointment with her and her business manager, and spoke with
enthusiasm of the play. 'It cannot help being a great success,' she
wrote; 'I feel that I am not worthy of it, but I will do my very best.
The part seems to me, in many respects, as though it had been written for
me. You have never, indeed, I remember, consented in so many words to let
me have _Elvira_. I thought I should meet you at Mrs. Stuart's yesterday,
and was disappointed. But I am sure you will not say me nay, and you will
see how grateful I shall be for the chance your work will give me.'