"’Amo, amas, I love a lass’. Is she pretty, Harry? By George! I like the notion." The two rode out together in the following week; Fanshawe made a good impression on Madame de Vaudrey, and his stammering French and good-humoured laughter at his own mistakes appeared to form a bond of union between him and Adèle, for she was soon chatting and smiling with a friendliness and freedom quite different from her reserved attitude towards Harry. Fanshawe talked and laughed gaily all the way back; Harry on the contrary was decidedly glum; and when Sherebiah came to him at night as usual for orders his master’s unaccustomed moodiness did not escape him. "What med be the meanen o’ this?" he muttered as he went away. "’Yanker didee dudel down Dida dudel launter——’ I must ride out-along to Lindendaal one o’ these fine days, and putt a question to Katrinka—ay sure." One afternoon in the second week of September Harry, having finished his duties for the day, paid a visit by himself to Madame de Vaudrey. He found the good lady in tears, and Adèle with very pale cheeks and a suspicious redness about her eyes. "Oh, Monsieur Harry!" cried the comtesse as he was shown in, "how glad I am to see you! This is a moment when I need a friend. Look at this letter from that odious Monsieur de Polignac. My poor dear husband! I am glad—it is horrible to say it—but yes, I am glad he did not live to see this terrible day. Read it, cher ami." Harry looked at the letter. It was a curt and formal note from Polignac intimating that, failing compliance with his suit, he was resolved to foreclose his mortgage on the estate one month from the date of the letter, as the terms of the deed provided. He still offered Mademoiselle his hand and heart; did she accept him as a husband he would immediately destroy the mortgage; he gave her a week to decide. "The villain!" ejaculated Harry. "He is within his right, Monsieur," said Adèle. "Right! Legal right, yes; no doubt it is so; but who but a villain would put the matter in this way!" "What I do not understand," said Madame de Vaudrey, "is his motive. If Adèle were a great heiress, I can understand that he should press his suit; but she is not; this poor little estate would not tempt an ambitious man; and as for herself, she has shown her aversion so plainly——" "I hate him!" cried the girl, with a vehemence that surprised Harry, so unlike was it to her usual cold self-contained air. "It is wrong to hate," said her mother; "but the dear girl has no liking for him, and how should a man desire for a wife one to whom he is so indifferent?" "Tell me," said Harry, "is the mortgage for a large sum?" "Alas! yes, for several thousand guilders; that is for the estate alone: the house is separately mortgaged, and the mortgagee in that case is content to receive his interest." "Have you no relatives who would advance the money?"