And now this man, who had hitherto valued himself as the very type of gentleman--whom all his young contemporaries had so regarded and so revered--had to press the head of a confiding friend and bid adieu to truth. He had to amuse, to delay, to mislead his boy-rival--to say that he was already subduing Nora's hesitating doubts--and that within a little time, she could be induced to consent to forget Harley's rank, and his parent's pride, and become his wife. And Harley believed in Egerton, without one suspicion on the mirror of his loyal soul. Meanwhile Audley impatient of his own position--impatient, as strong minds ever are, to hasten what they have once resolved--to terminate a suspense that every interview with Harley tortured alike by jealousy and shame--to put himself out of the reach of scruples, and to say to himself, "Right or wrong, there is no looking back; the deed is done;"--Audley, thus hurried on by the impetus of his own power of will, pressed for speedy and secret nuptials--secret till his fortunes, then wavering, were more assured--his career fairly commenced. This was not his strongest motive, though it was one. He shrank from the discovery of his wrong to his friend--desired to delay the self-humiliation of such announcement, until, as he persuaded himself, Harley's boyish passion was over--had yielded to the new allurements that would naturally beset his way. Stifling his conscience, Audley sought to convince himself that the day would soon come when Harley could hear with indifference that Nora Avenel was another's "The dream of an hour, at his age," murmured the elder friend; "but at mine, the passion of a life!" He did not speak of these latter motives for concealment to Nora. He felt that, to own the extent of his treason to a friend, would lower him in her eyes. He spoke therefore but slightingly of Harley--treated the boy's suit as a thing past and gone. He dwelt only on reasons that compelled self-sacrifice on his side or hers. She did not hesitate which to choose. And so, where Nora loved, so submissively did she believe in the superiority of the lover, that she would not pause to hear a murmur from her own loftier nature, or question the propriety of what he deemed wise and good. Abandoning prudence in this arch affair of life, Audley still preserved his customary caution in minor details. And this indeed was characteristic of him throughout all his career--heedless in large things--wary in small. He would not trust Lady Jane Horton with his secret, still less Lady Lansmere. He simply represented to the former, that Nora was no longer safe from Harley's determined pursuit under Lady Jane's roof, and that she had better elude the boy's knowledge of her movements, and go quietly away for a while, to lodge with some connection of her own.