"Well, I must say you are a sensible young man!" laughed Mrs. Leland; "but
it was very unromantic to be so heavy as to break the limb and fall."
"True enough!" he said, half-laughing, half-sighing, while a deep flush
suffused his face.
"Well, what are you going to do next?"
"Go off to--Italy, I suppose."
"What for?"
"To try to make fame and money to lay at her feet."
"That is all very well, but I think----"
"Well?"
"It just struck me that I was about to give unasked advice, which is
seldom relished by the recipient."
"Please go on. I should like to have it whether I make use of it or not."
"Well, I think the honest, straightforward, and therefore best course,
would be to seek an interview with the parents of the young lady, tell
them frankly your feelings toward her, your hopes and purposes, and leave
it with them to say whether you shall go without speaking to her."
"They will take me for a fortune-hunter, I fear," he said, the color
mounting to his very hair.
"I think not; but at all events, I should risk it. I do not pretend to
know Elsie's feelings, but if she cares for you at all, it would be
treating her very badly indeed, to go away without letting her know yours;
unless her parents forbid it.
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