"Oh dear no," he replied. "Winsley is all very well for a fortnight, but six weeks of it would be rather too much of a good thing. I left Winsley some time ago. I am here now with an old friend of mine. Major Thanet, who has been very ill with rheumatic fever, and came down hero to recruit." "And are you returning to Winsley again soon?" inquired Mrs Dalrymple, her suspicion increasing that they were playing at cross purposes in some direction. "Oh dear no," he said again. "My leave is about up--I got a little more than my six weeks on Thanet's account. I am due at Bridgenorth next week." "At Bridgenorth," repeated Mrs Dalrymple. "Oh, indeed; and do you remain here till then?" "Upon my word I can't say," replied Captain Chancellor, with an approach to impatience in his tone. "I certainly didn't come here to sit being catechised by Mary Pevensey all the afternoon," he said to himself, waxing wroth at Mrs Dalrymple's cross questions and Eugenia's non-appearance. Then suddenly throwing caution to the winds, "To tell you the truth," exclaimed he, "my plans at present depend greatly upon yours." "Upon ours--may I ask why?" inquired Eugenia's chaperone quietly, and without testifying the surprise her visitor expected. "Because upon yours depend those of your visitor--at least so I suppose," answered Beauchamp, coolly. "Miss Laurence is staying with you. If she stays here till next week, I shall stay too; if she goes I shall probably go too." "Where?" asked Mrs Dalrymple, looking up at him with a puzzled yet anxious expression on her comely face. "To Wareborough! to ask her father to consent to her engagement to me," he replied stoutly. "I shall either see him or write to him at once from here." "But--" began Mrs Dalrymple, coming to a dead stop. "But what?" "You can't marry two people." "Certainly not. Has any one been telling you I intended doing so," he replied, beginning, in spite of his vexation, to laugh. "Yes," answered Mrs Dalrymple, naively. "At least, not exactly that. But I was told some time ago that you were to be married to my cousin Roma next month, and of course I believed it. Eugenia thinks so too." "Eugenia thinks so too," repeated Captain Chancellor, his face darkening. "How can she possibly think so? And whoever told her such an infernal falsehood, I should like to know?" he went on angrily, for it was unspeakably annoying to him that any shadow, however distorted, of his late relations to Roma should thus follow him about--should dim the brightness of the little-looked-for consolation that had offered itself. Mrs Dalrymple was by no means taken aback by this outburst. "It was I that told Eugenia," she said simply. "I beg your pardon," exclaimed Beauchamp at once, his manner softening. "Of course you, too, were misinformed. I wonder--" he hesitated.