recognition of your patience."

"Yes, that was pleasant," he said, cheerfully again, "And it was the
beginning of the kind of relation that I have held ever since to her
household. I am afraid I am there a good half of my time, and I believe
I dine there oftener than I do at home. I am quite on the footing of a
son, with her."

"There are some of the unregenerate, Glendenning," I made bold to say,
"who think it is your own fault that you weren't on the footing of a
son-in-law with her long ago. If you'll excuse my saying so, you have
been, if anything, too patient. It would have been far better for all if
you had taken the bit in your teeth six or seven years back--"

He drew a deep breath. "It wouldn't have done; it wouldn't have done!
Edith herself would never have consented to it."

"Did you ever ask her?"

"No," he said, innocently. "How could I?"

"And of course _she_ could never ask _you_," I laughed. "My opinion is
that you have lost a great deal of time unnecessarily. I haven't the
least doubt that if you had brought a little pressure to bear with Mrs.
Bentley herself, it would have sufficed."

He looked at me with a kind of dismay, as if my words had carried
conviction, or had roused a conviction long dormant in his heart. "It
wouldn't have done," he gasped.