"I don't know whether I quite thought it was a subject for warning," Mrs. Orton Beg answered, "and at any rate, girls _do_ talk in that way sometimes, not really meaning it. I thought it was mere _youngness_ on our part, and theory; and I don't know now whether I quite approve of your having been told--of this new departure, she added, indicating the letter. "_I_ do," said Evadne decidedly. "I would stop the imposition, approved of custom, connived at by parents, made possible by the state of ignorance in which we are carefully kept--the imposition upon a girl's innocence and inexperience of a disreputable man for a husband." Mrs. Orton Beg was startled by this bold assertion, which was so unprecedented in her experience that for a moment she could not utter a word; and when she did speak she avoided a direct reply, because she thought any discussion on the subject of marriage, except from the sentimental point of view, was indelicate. "But tell me your position exactly," she begged--"what you did next: why you are here!" "I went by the night mail North," Evadne answered, "and saw them. They were very kind. They told me everything. I can't repeat the details; they disgust me." "No, pray don't!" Mrs. Orton Beg exclaimed hastily. She had no mind for anything unsavoury. "They had been abroad, you know," Evadne pursued; "Otherwise I should have heard from them as soon as the engagement was announced. They hoped to be in time, however. They had no idea the marriage would take place so soon." Mrs. Orton Beg reflected for a little, and then she asked in evident trepidation, for she had more than a suspicion of what the reply would be: "Anc what are you going to do?" "Decline to live with him," Evadne answered. This was what Mrs. Orton Beg had begun to suspect, but there is often an element of surprise in the confirmation of our shrewdest suspicions, and now she sat upright, leant forward, and looked at her niece aghast. "_What_?" she demanded. "I shall decline to live with him," Evadne repeated with emphasis. Mrs. Orton Beg slowly resumed her reclining position, acting as one does who has heard the worst, and realizes that there is nothing to be done but to recover from the shock. "I thought you loved him," she ventured, after a prolonged pause.