"I thought there must be something--" answered Miss Webster, and then she paused. "We are going to be married at once," continued John, speaking as though he had planned beforehand what to say, "but I am sorry to tell you our marriage for the present must be a secret one. My uncle, Mr. Temple of Woodlea, is an old-fashioned man, with many class prejudices, and May is not what he would consider, nay does consider, exactly in my position of life. Her father, in truth, is a tenant-farmer, one of my uncle's tenants, and he never would give his consent to our marriage. Her young brothers also, unfortunately, played in the game of football when poor young Phil Temple was killed, and Mrs. Temple, my uncle's wife, has an extraordinary prejudice on this account against the whole family. Thus you see it would never do for me, during my uncle's life, to marry May openly." "Does she know this?" asked Miss Webster, quickly, her delicate complexion flushing as she spoke. "Certainly she knows it; knows that only on these conditions we could be married--do you understand, dear Miss Webster? I admit I deceived you; I called May my cousin, and she is not my cousin, but I could not explain all this to you at the time, and my object was naturally to get a respectable home for May until I could marry her; and I knew she would have this with you, and so will you forgive me?" "And her parents?" asked Miss Webster, moving her hands uneasily. "Her mother is dead, and her father recently married again, and his new wife has made May's home life wretched since she has been at Woodside. She is a vulgar person, I believe, and, moreover, she has taken into her head that May ought to marry a brutal young man who lives in those parts, and who very narrowly escaped being tried for murder lately. He certainly behaved disgracefully to a poor girl he had treated most cruelly, and who either shot herself, or whom he shot. At all events, this Henderson is a person not fit to speak to May. Yet this Mrs. Churchill pestered her continually about him, and finally May determined to leave her home to escape her persecution." "And--do they know about--you?" "Not a word, nor must they know. May left a letter for her father to tell him she was leaving because she could not get on with her stepmother, and this is enough explanation for her to give. The rest is between ourselves. I mean to marry May at once, and take her abroad for a short time, and then, Miss Webster, I have a proposition to make to you, to which I most earnestly hope you will agree. I can not acknowledge my marriage to May for the present, and she is too young to live alone. So will you allow her to remain an inmate of your house? Of course, she shall have a handsome income, and I know she is fond of both you and Miss Eliza, and my mind would be at rest regarding her if I knew she was under your kindly care."