"I am going to the library to smoke half-an-hour. Then, mother, you and the girls will join me there. I have something important to tell you." He did not wait for an answer, and his mother was furious at the request. "Did you notice his tone, Isabel?" she inquired. "His words sounded more like a command than a request. It is adding insult to injury to summon me to his room--for nobody goes to the library but himself--to hear the thing he has to tell. I shall go to my own room, and he can come there and tell me his important news." "Mother, why not send for him to return here in half-an-hour?" This proposal was acceptable, and in half-an-hour Jepson was sent with "Mrs. Campbell's compliments, and she hopes Mr. Campbell will return to the dining-room, as she feels unable to bear the smell of tobacco to-night." Mr. Campbell uttered two words in a low voice which sounded like "Confound it!" but he bid Jepson tell Mrs. Campbell "he would return to the dining-room immediately." Upon hearing which, Mrs. Campbell took a reclining position on the sofa, and on her face there was the satisfied, close-mouthed smile of one who compliments herself on winning the first move. CHAPTER II PREPARING FOR THE BRIDE Campbell returned to the dining-room pleasantly enough. He placed his chair at his mother's side, and asked: "Are you feeling ill, mother?" "Rather, Robert, and the library is objectionable to me, since you began to smoke there. In fact, I have long been prejudiced against the room, for your father had a trick of sending for me to come there, whenever he was compelled to tell me of some misfortune. Consequently, I have associated the library with calamity, and I did not wish to hear your important news there." "Calamity? No, no! My news is altogether happy and delightful. Mother, I am going to be married in October, to the loveliest woman in the world, and she is as good and clever as she is beautiful." "Married! May I ask after the lady's name?" "Theodora Newton. Her father is the Methodist preacher at Kendal, a town in Westmoreland." "England?" "Yes." "She is an Englishwoman?" "Of course!" "I might have known it. I never knew a Scotchwoman called Theodora." "It is a good name and suits her to perfection. Her father belongs to the Northumberland Newtons, a fine old family." "It may be. I never heard of them. You say he is a Methodist preacher?" "A remarkable preacher. I heard him last Sunday." "Robert Campbell! Have you fairly forgotten yourself? Methodists are Arminians, and Arminians I hold in utter abomination, as every good Calvinist should." "I know nothing about such subjects. This generation, mother, is getting hold of more tolerant ideas. But it makes no matter to me what creed Theodora believes in. I should love her just the same even if she were a Roman Catholic." "A man in love, Robert, suffers from a temporary collapse o' good sense. But when I hear you say things like that, I think you are mad entirely."