"Was there any reason why I should not do so? Bessy stands to me as a sister: and I like her. I am glad she is married, and I hope sincerely they'll have the best of luck." "I had forbidden the union with Oliver Rane," stamped madam. "Do you hear?--_forbidden it_. You knew that as well as she did." "But then, don't you see, mother mine, you had no particular right to forbid it. If Matilda, there, took it into her head to marry some knight or other, you would have a voice in the matter, for or against; but Bessy was responsible to her father only." "Don't bring my name into your nonsense, Arthur," struck in Matilda, with a frown. Madam, looking from one to the other, was biting her lips. "They had the wedding whilst you were away that it might be got over quietly," resumed Arthur, in his laughing way, determined not to give in an inch, even though he had to tell a home truth or two. "For my part, mother, I have never understood what possible objection you could have to Rane." "That is my business," spoke Mrs. North. "I wish he and those Cumberland people were all at the bottom of the sea. How dared you disgrace yourself, Arthur Bohun?" "Disgrace myself?" "You did. You, a Bohun, to descend to companionship with _them!_ Fie upon you! And you have been said to inherit your father's pride." "As I hope I do, in all proper things. I am unable to understand your distinctions, madam," he added, laughingly. "Rane is as good as Bessy, for all I see. As good as we are." Madam caught up a hand-screen, as if she would have liked to throw it at him. Her hand trembled, with emotion or temper. "There's some girl living with them. They tell me you went home with her in the carriage!" Arthur Bohun suddenly turned his back upon them, as if to see who might be coming, for distant footsteps were heard advancing. But for that, madam might have seen a hot flush illumine his face. "Well? What else, mother? Of course I took her home--Miss Adair." "In the face and eyes of Dallory!" "Certainly. And we had faces and eyes out that morning, I can tell you. It is not every day a Miss North gets married." "How came _you_ to take her home?" "Dick asked me to do so. There was no one else to ask, you see. Mrs. Gass cheered us in going by, as if we had been an election. She had a shining yellow gown on and white bows in her cap." His suavity was so great, his determination not to be ruffled so evident, that Mrs. North felt partly foiled. It was not often she attacked Arthur; he always met it in this way, and no satisfaction came of it. She could have struck him as he stood. "What is the true tale about the ring, Arthur?" asked Matilda, in the silence come to by Mrs. North. "Lake says Oliver Rane really lost it." "Really and truly, Matty." "Were they married without a ring?"