"Well, what about her? I consider it a piece of unwarrantable impertinence on Mr. Avison's part to ask me whether I am engaged to Hermy, as also to advise me to visit less frequently at John Brancker's house. What can it possibly matter to him how often I go there?" "Oh! Frank, Frank! when will you be able to see an inch further than your nose? Cannot you comprehend that Mr. Avison's interference in your affairs is dictated by a strong desire for your ultimate good? Do not his actions say as plainly as words, 'Only do as I want you to do, and I will set you on the high-road to fortune?' You ought never to forget that Mr. Avison's nearest relatives are all of my sex, and that in view of the delicate state of his health, as well as of the fact that he is no longer young, the question of a possible successor at the Bank, especially now that Mr. Hazeldine is no more, is one which must inevitably be much in his thoughts. I am glad you were able to assure him that there is no engagement between yourself and Miss Rivers." "But there is an engagement between us, as you know full well. I was a hound to tell Mr. Avison that there wasn't." "An engagement of a sort," replied Mrs. Dersion meaningly; then after a moment's pause, she went on: "It was only a half-and-half provisional arrangement, look at it whichever way you will. At the end of a year either of you could cry off that might wish to do so; and now that the course it is to your interest to follow is put so plainly before you, surely you would not----?" "I repeat it, I was a hound to tell Mr. Avison what I did. Hermia Rivers is the most charming girl I know, and I'm far from sure that I want to break with her." "Frank, you are a fool, and I have no patience with you," said Mrs. Derison, in coldly contemptuous tones, as she got up and left the room. But it was only to return to the charge a little later on. She did not in the least doubt that, in the long run, her stronger will should overmaster Frank's weak one, and that she should ultimately carry her point. Thus it fell out that, in the course of the next day but one after Frank's interview with Mr. Avison, the following letter was received by Miss Rivers: "My Dear Hermia, "Never before have I had so hard a task as the one which confronts me to-day, and I scarcely know in what terms to set about it. Pray believe me when I tell you that to me the pain is very keen, though I cannot flatter myself that it will be anything like the same to you. In any case, I trust that what I am about to propose will, in the long run, prove conducive to the happiness of both. "It is now upwards of a year since you and I entered into a kind of semi-engagement, which by mutual consent was to be kept secret from everyone for the time being, and was to be terminable at the end of twelve months at the option of either or both, unless it should meanwhile have developed into a bond of a much closer and warmer kind.