"Because Madame Alpenny will never allow them to live under the same roof as herself. She is a very determined woman, Mr. Hench. I shall be sorry to lose the company of the bridal pair," said poor Mrs. Tesk, wiping away a tear, "as I highly approve of their young affection. It's so romantic. Ah!" she rose suddenly and opened the door. "They have broken the news. Hark!" Madame Alpenny certainly was not pleased. She stood at the head of the stairs anathematizing the bridal pair as they descended arm in arm. Zara was weeping and Bracken's stolid face wore an angry expression. Moved to the depths of her being, Mrs. Tesk was about to rush out and console them when her skirts were plucked by Hench. "Don't say that I am here," he whispered, and the landlady nodded comprehendingly as she disappeared. While Mrs. Tesk was accompanying Bracken and his wife to the door Madame Alpenny still stood at the top of the stairs raging wildly. She was fat and homely in her appearance, and still wore her eternal orange-spotted dress, bead mantle and picture hat. But furious anger made her look quite picturesque as she poured out a torrent of words, shaking her fists and with flashing eyes. "Never come near me again, you miserable girl!" she shouted after her daughter. "Ah, but what a wicked child you are to throw yourself away on a fool. As to that man Hench, who has bribed you into deceiving me, he shall suffer for his evil doings. Take my curse with you, Zara, and may you-----" Sheer wrath choked her further utterance, and perhaps the fact that the happy pair had stepped out of the front door. Even Atê cannot waste her fury on nothing, and Madame Alpenny looked very like Atê indeed. Luckily the boarders were all away and the servants were downstairs, so there were no spectators of the scene but Hench and Mrs. Tesk. The landlady parted with Zara and Bracken quite tenderly, for their romance appealed to her ever-young heart. While she was dismissing them on the doorstep, with a blessing which she hoped would neutralize the maternal curse, Hench ran up the stairs and into the drawing-room as quickly as he could. Madame Alpenny had staggered into the same a few moments earlier, and was sobbing violently on the sofa when Owain entered and closed the door. At the sound of the closing she looked up, and her face became purple with rage when she saw who had disturbed her. "You dare to come here, you--you--you?" she stormed, rising promptly and shaking her fist. "You who have ruined my hopes for Zara." "As those hopes were connected with a possible marriage between myself and your daughter," said Owain suavely, "I told you long ago that they could never be realized." "You told me. What do I care what you told me?" Madame Alpenny was in such a rage that she could scarcely get the words out. "And you smile, do you? Ah, yes, you can smile at my shame."