CHAPTER III.
But news reached the village from a friend of Phyllis's father concerning Mr.Humphrey Gould, her remarkably cool and patient betrothed.

This gentleman had been heard to say in Bath that he considered his overtures to Miss Phyllis Grove to have reached only the stage of a half-understanding; and in view of his enforced absence on his father's account, who was too great an invalid now to attend to his affairs, he thought it best that there should be no definite promise as yet on either side.

He was not sure, indeed, that he might not cast his eyes elsewhere.
This account--though only a piece of hearsay, and as such entitled to no absolute credit--tallied so well with the infrequency of his letters and their lack of warmth, that Phyllis did not doubt its truth for one moment; and from that hour she felt herself free to bestow her heart as she should choose.

Not so her father; he declared the whole story to be a fabrication.

He had known Mr.Gould's family from his boyhood; and if there was one proverb which expressed the matrimonial aspect of that family well, it was 'Love me little, love me long.' Humphrey was an honourable man, who would not think of treating his engagement so lightly.