“Answer, Lotte, dearest; do not be cold or cruel to me. Could you be happy, if you were my wife?” She turned her eyes full of tenderness upon his, and in the rich tones of a fall heart said-- “I could, indeed, Mark; in truth I could.” “And love me, Lotte?” “And love you, Mark; fondly, tenderly, dearly--very, very dearly.” He pressed her to his heart. “I ask no more,” he replied, with deep emotion. “We will settle the social distinctions after we are married.” That night before he parted with her, he obtained from her a conditional assent to be his. The condition imposed by her was, that his father and his sister should give their consent to the union, and receive her as became the position of the wife of the eldest born of the house. Mark placed the fulfilment of that condition in the rosiest light, and left her to depart for home on the following morning. He arrived at his destination at a most critical moment in his father’s life. CHAPTER IV.--MR. CHEWKLE’S MISSION Avaunt and quit my sight--let the earth hide thee! Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold; Thou hast no speculation in those eyes Which thou dost glare with. Hence, horrible shadow, Unreal mockery, hence! ***** You have displaced the mirth, broke the meeting With most admir’d disorder. Shakspere. It is necessary to refer to the position in which Harry Vivian was placed by the conduct of Mr. Harper’s returned son. Ejected with brutal coarseness from the establishment in Clerkenwell, his presence at Highbury was of course, out of the question. His future was now in his own hands. Most men have latent energies; of these there is a class who can only have them elicited by the pressure of dire disaster; there is another class, in whom they spring into action at the first call of necessity; Harry Vivian was one of the latter. He had money by him. Mr. Harper had, early in life, taught him the advantages of spending less than he received; and funding the residue. This habit was grafted upon him in no miserly spirit; but that in the most important epoch of his life he should be able to determine the value of living within his income by the inestimable comfort enjoyed by all who are never in debt. One night’s anxious deliberation and his course was clear to him. He was gifted with remarkable powers of perception. When he erred it was by accident--it was never by the failing of his understanding. He detected the right side of a question at the first glance, and though his decision was not formed without a careful consideration, he rarely had occasion to ignore his first impression.