A report from this lookout was what he hoped to elicit by the remark which he wished to make.

He desired greatly to know whether Miss Roberta March looked upon him in the light of a lover, or in that of an intimate acquaintance, whose present intimacy depended a good deal upon the propinquity of Midbranch and the Green Sulphur Springs.

He had endeavored to produce upon her mind the latter impression.

If he ever wished her to regard him as a lover he could do this in the easiest and most straightforward way, but the other procedure was much more difficult, and he was not certain that he had succeeded in it.

How to find out in what light she viewed him without allowing the lady to perceive his purpose was a very delicate operation.
"I wish," said Miss Roberta, poking with the end of her parasol at some half-withered wild flowers which lay on the steps beneath her, "that you would change your mind, and take supper with us." Mr Croft's mind was very busy in endeavoring to think of some casual remark, some observation regarding man, nature, or society, or even an anecdote or historical incident, which, if brought into the conversation, might produce upon the lady's countenance some shade of expression, or some variation in her tone or words which would give him the information he sought for.