"
Was it his fancy, or did he really, as he stood at the door, hear a
deep, heart-broken sigh? Did her voice, in a sad, low wail, come to
him--"Norman, Norman!"
He turned quickly[5], but she seemed already to have forgotten him, and
was looking through the open window.
Was it his fancy again, when the door had closed, or did she really
cry--"Norman!" He opened the door quickly.
"Did you call me, Philippa?" he asked.
"No," she replied; and he went away.
"I do not understand it," he thought; "there is something not quite
right. Philippa is not like herself."
Then he went in search of Lady Peters, whom he bewildered and astonished
by telling her that it lay in her power to make him the happiest of men.
"That is what men say when they make an offer of marriage," she
observed; "and I am sure you are not about to make one to me."
"No; but, dear Lady Peters, I want you to help me marry some one else.
Will you go to the duchess? She will tell you all about it."
"Why not tell me yourself?" she asked.
"She has better powers of persuasion," he replied, laughingly.
"Then I am afraid, if so much persuasion is required, that something
wrong is on the _tapis_," said Lady Peters.
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