It was the genuine thing.

He did not quite know how he would face the future if she refused him; and he was sufficiently humble to be in doubt.
The neat maid told him at the door that Miss Launton had given directions that he was to be shown into the garden if he came....

No; Miss Launton was in the morning-room, but she should be told at once.

So Dick strolled across the lawn and sat down by the garden table.
He looked at the solemn, dreaming house in the late summer sunshine; he observed a robin issue out from a lime tree and inspect him sideways; and then another robin issue from another lime tree and drive the first one away.

Then he noticed a smear of dust on his own left boot, and flicked it off with a handkerchief.