I will wager that, if you and I had been standing behind him when he opened your letter, you would have heard an expression of very different sentiments from those he writes you here.
"Look at this: 'I regret, indeed, my dear uncle, that my new cousin must have such a bad opinion of me, owing to my roughness in that unfortunate affair, which I have never ceased to regret; but I hope that, when we meet, I shall be able to overcome the dislike which she must feel for me.' "Bah!" the old soldier said scornfully.

"I would lay all my pension, to a shilling, that boy has already made up his mind that someday he will marry Aggie, and so contrive to get the estates after all." The squire burst into a good-humoured laugh.
"It's well I don't take up your wager.

Such ideas as that might occur to you and me, but hardly to a lad not yet seventeen." "Well, we shall see," the other said, cooling down.

"I hope I may be mistaken in him.

We shall see when he comes home." When he did come home, the old soldier could find but little fault with the young man.