steadfastness.

A strong impulse drew him to Bryanston Square, where Miss Ponsonby
was very kind and warm, the more so because she had discovered how
much easier it had been to say than to unsay, and strongly regretted
the injustice she had done him. He had the satisfaction of talking
for a good hour about Mary, and of sending a message, that he did not
write because he wished to be guided by her in everything, and that
he was striving to work so as to please her. The conversation ended
with some good auguries as to the effect of Oliver's return to Peru;
and Louis went away cheered, bearing the final dismissal better than
his father had expected. Lord Ormersfield attributed his
tranquillity to having his mind settled; and so it was, though not
quite as his lordship imagined.

Meantime, there was a lull at Dynevor Terrace. Oliver was gone to
take possession and furnish the mansion, and Mrs. Frost's great
object was to keep the subject from irritating her grandson, so as to
save him from binding himself by any rash vows. Cheveleigh was
treated in the domestic circle with judicious silence, Oliver's
letters were read by his mother in private, and their contents
communicated to Jane alone, whose happiness was surpassing, and her
contempt for Dynevor Terrace quite provoking to poor Mrs. Martha.

'Really,' said Charlotte one day, 'I don't think a catastrophe is
half so pretty as it ought to be. Mr. Oliver is but a poor little
puny man, and I never knew Mr. James so hard to please.'

Charlotte and Marianne had begun to merge their rivalry in honest
friendship, cemented by Marianne's increasing weakness, and