Nothing apparently could be more simple, seeing that, before Captain Bowood knew what had happened, he found himself securely handcuffed. ‘Ha, ha—just so. Queer sensation—very,’ he exclaimed, turning redder in the face than usual. ‘But I don’t care how soon you take them off, Mr Inspector.’ ‘No hurry, Captain, no hurry.’ ‘Confound you! what do you mean by no hurry? What’—— But here the Captain came to a sudden stop. The inspector’s black wig and whiskers had vanished, and the laughingly impudent features of his peccant nephew were revealed to his astonished gaze. ‘Good-afternoon, my dear uncle. This is the second time to-day that I have had the pleasure of seeing you.’ Then he called: ‘Elsie, dear!’ ‘Here I am, Charley,’ came in immediate response. ‘Come and kiss me.’ ‘Yes, Charley.’ And with that Miss Brandon rose from her chair, and with a slightly heightened colour and the demurest air possible, came down the room and allowed her lover to lightly touch her lips with his. It was a pretty picture. ‘What—what! Why—why,’ spluttered the Captain. For a little while words seemed to desert him. ‘My dear uncle, pray, _pray_, do not allow yourself to get quite so red in the face; at your time of life you really alarm me.’ ‘You—you vile young jackanapes! You—you cockatrice!—And you, miss, you shall smart for this. I’ll—I’ll—— Oh!’ ‘Patience, good uncle; prithee, patience.’ ‘Patience! O for a good horsewhip!’ ‘When I called upon you this morning, sir,’ resumed Charles the imperturbable, ‘I left unsaid the most important part of that which I had come to say; it therefore became needful that I should see you again.’ ‘O for a horsewhip! Are you going to take these things off me, or are you not?’ ‘The object of my second visit, sir, is to inform you that Miss Brandon and I are engaged to be married, and to beg of you to give us your consent and blessing, and make two simple young creatures happy.’ ‘Handcuffed like a common poacher on his way to jail! Oh, when once I get free!’ ‘We have made up our minds to get married; haven’t we, Elsie?’ ‘We have—or else to die together,’ replied Miss Brandon, as she struck a little tragic attitude. ‘Think over what I have said, my dear uncle, and accord us your consent.’ ‘Or our deaths will lie at your door.’ ‘Every night as the clock struck twelve, you would see us by your side.’ ‘You would never more enjoy your rum-and-water and your pipe.’ ‘I should tickle your ear with a ghostly feather, and wake you in the middle of your first sleep.’ ‘I shall go crazy—crazy!’ spluttered the Captain. He would have stamped his foot, only he was afraid of the gout. ‘Not quite, sir, I hope,’ replied young Summers, with a sudden change of manner; and next moment, and without any action of his own in the matter, the Captain found himself a free man. The first thing he did was to make a sudden grasp at his cane; but Elsie was too quick for him, or it might have fared ill with her sweetheart.