"Yes, that's what Mrs. Elmore said. She said she supposed he must think it was the American way." "Mrs. Elmore," began her husband; but he arrested himself there, and said, "Very well. I want to know what I am to do. I want your full and explicit authority before I act. We will dismiss the fact of irregularity. We will suppose that it is fit and becoming for a gentleman who has twice met a young lady by accident--or once by accident, and once by his own insistence--to write to her. Do you wish to continue the correspondence?" "No." Elmore looked into the eyes which dwelt full upon him, and, though they were clear as the windows of heaven, he hesitated. "I must do what you _say_, no matter what you mean, you know?" "I mean what I say." "Perhaps," he suggested, "you would prefer to return him this letter with a few lines on your card." "No. I should like him to know that I have shown it to you. I should think it a liberty for an American to write to me in that way after such a short acquaintance, and I don't see why I should tolerate it from a foreigner, though I suppose their customs _are_ different." "Then you wish me to write to him?" "Yes." "And make an end of the matter, once for all?" "Yes--" "Very well, then." Elmore sat down at once, and wrote:-- SIR,--Miss Mayhew has handed me your note of yesterday, and begs me to express her very great surprise that you should have ventured to address her. She desires me also to add that you will consider at an end whatever acquaintance you suppose yourself to have formed with her. Your obedient servant, OWEN ELMORE. He handed the note to Lily. "Yes, that will do," she said, in a low, steady voice. She drew a deep breath, and, laying the letter softly down, went out of the room into Mrs. Elmore's. Elmore had not had time to kindle his sealing-wax when his wife appeared swiftly upon the scene. "I want to see what you have written, Owen," she said. "Don't talk to me, Celia," he replied, thrusting the wax into the candle-light. "You have put this affair entirely in my hands, and Lily approves of what I have written. I am sick of the thing, and I don't want any more talk about it." "I _must_ see it," said Mrs. Elmore, with finality, and possessed herself of the note. She ran it through, and then flung it on the table and dropped into a chair, while the tears started to her eyes. "What a cold, cutting, merciless letter!" she cried. "I hope he will think so," said Elmore, gathering it up from the table, and sealing it securely in its envelope. "You're not going to _send_ it!" exclaimed his wife. "Yes, I am." "I didn't suppose you could be so heartless." "Very well, then, I _won't_ send it," said Elmore. "I put the affair in _your_ hands. What are you going to do about it?" "Nonsense!"