'My darling, my dearest love, what a burning shame! What a villainous old hag that Pew woman must be! Bessie told me she was a Tartar, but this beats everything. Expelled! Your conduct impeached because you let me talk to you--I, Bessie's cousin, a man who at the worst has some claim to be considered a gentleman, while you have the highest claim to be considered a lady. It is beyond all measure infamous.' 'It was rather hard, was it not?' said Ida quietly. 'Abominable, insufferable! I--well. I'll call upon the lady this afternoon, and make her acquainted with my sentiments upon the subject. The wicked old harridan.' 'Please don't,' urged Ida, smiling at his wrath; 'it doesn't give me any consolation to hear you call her horrid names.' 'Did you tell her that I had asked you to be my wife?' 'I said something to that effect--in self-defence--not from any wish to commit you: and she told me that a man in your position, who intended to marry a girl in my position, would act in a very different manner from the way in which you have acted.' 'Did she? She is a wise judge of human nature--and of a lover's nature, above all. Well, Ida, dearest, we have only one course open to us, and that is to give her the lie at once--by our conduct. Deeds, not words, shall be our argument. You do care for me--just a little--don't you, pet? just well enough to marry me? All the rest will come after?' 'Whom else have I to care for?' faltered Ida, with downcast eyes and passionately throbbing heart. 'Who else has ever cared for me?' 'I am answered. So long as I am the only one I will confide all the rest to Fate. We will be married to-morrow.' 'To-morrow! No, no, no.' 'Yes, yes, yes. What is there to hinder our immediate marriage? And what can be such a crushing answer to that old Jezebel! We will be married at the little church where I saw you last Sunday night, looking like St. Cecilia when you joined in the Psalms. We have been both living in the same parish for the last fortnight. I will run up to Doctors' Commons this afternoon, bring back the licence, interview the parson, and have everything arranged for our being married at ten o'clock to-morrow morning.' 'No, no, not for the world.' For some time the girl was firm in her refusal of such a hasty union. She would not marry her lover except in the face of the world, with the full consent of his friends and her own. Her duty was to go by the first train and boat that would convey her to Dieppe, and to place herself in her father's care. 'Do you think your father would object to our marriage?' asked Brian. 'No, I am sure he would not object,' she answered, smiling within herself at the question. As if Captain Palliser, living upon his half-pay, and the occasional benefactions of a rich kinsman, could by any possibility object to a match that would make his daughter mistress of Wendover Abbey!