The outburst seemed unnecessary. It struck Mildred that he must have seriously feared opposition from some quarter, the tone of his voice was so sore a one. She looked up with questioning eyes. "I have plenty of money, you know, Mildred," he added, more quietly. "I don't want to look out for a fortune with my wife." "Very true," murmured Mildred. "I wonder whether she has brought it out to my father?" resumed William, nodding towards his mother at the card-table. "I don't think she has; he seems only just as usual. She'll make it the subject of a curtain-lecture to-night, for a guinea!" Mildred stole a glance at her uncle. He was intent on his cards, good old man, his spectacles pushed to the top of his ample brow. "Do you know, Mildred, I was half afraid to come to the point with them," he presently said. "I dreaded opposition. I----" "But why?" timidly interrupted Mildred. "Well, I can't tell why. All I know is, that the feeling was there--picked up somehow. I dreaded opposition, especially from my mother; but, as I say, I cannot tell why. I never was more surprised than when she said I had made her happy by my choice--that it was a union she had set her heart upon. I am not sure yet, you know, that my father will approve it." "He may urge against it the want of money," murmured Mildred; "it is only reasonable he should. And----" "It is not reasonable," interposed William Arkell, in a tone of resentment. "There's nothing at all in reason that can be urged against it; and I am sure you don't really think there is, Mildred." "And yet you acknowledge that you dreaded opening the matter to them?" "Yes, because fathers and mothers are always so exacting over these things. Every crow thinks its own young bird the whitest, and many a mother with an only son deems him fit to mate with a princess of the blood-royal. I declare to you, Mildred, I felt a regular coward about telling my mother--foolish as the confession must sound to you; and once I thought of speaking to you first, and getting you to break it to her. I thought she might listen to it from you better than from me." Mildred thought it would have been a novel mode of procedure, but she did not say so. Her cousin went on:-- "We must have the wedding in a month, or so; I won't wait a day longer, and so I told my mother. I have seen a charming little house just suitable for us, and----" "You might have consulted me first, William, before you fixed the time." "What for? Nonsense! will not one time do for you as well as another?" Miss Arkell looked up at her cousin: he seemed to be talking strangely. "But where is the necessity for hurrying on the wedding like this?" she asked. "Not to speak of other considerations, the preparations would take up more time."