"You do not wish to go back to The Oaks, then, even for a few weeks, and to save appearances?" "No, Baillie, I cannot. I should have to act a lie every hour of my stay there. I should be obliged to pretend friendship for my aunts when I feel nothing of the kind. They have insulted the memory of my grandfather, and they have spoken of you in a way that never so long as I live will I let any human being speak of you without resenting it. I do not care to 'save appearances,' as you put it. Appearances may look out for themselves. 'Saving appearances' is only a sneaking way of lying. No. I will go to some friends in Richmond, if they will let me--" "Why not go to Warlock?" he asked. "Why, that would outrage the proprieties beyond forgiveness now that we--well, under the circumstances." So Mistress Agatha did "care for appearances" and conventions after all. But Baillie did not think of that. "Why not go there as the mistress of Warlock--as my wife?" he asked. "Why should we not be married to-morrow at Christ-Church-in-the-Woods? I am a soldier. I shall be strong enough to return to duty presently. When I do so I shall want to feel that you are safe at Warlock, that you are mine, my wife to cherish while I live. Say that it shall be so, Agatha! Let me send word to Mr. Berkeley, the rector, to-night, that we shall be at the church at noon to-morrow!" [Illustration: "'_'At Christ-church-in-the-wood_'"] The girl thought for a moment, and then said: "Yes, that will be best. For then, if you fall ill or are wounded again, I shall have a right to go to you and care for you. Let it be so. Now you must not ride to Warlock on horseback to-night. It is very cool, and you have already overtaxed your strength. I shall ask Miss Blair to send you over in her carriage." When he had gone Agatha announced the news to her hostesses and straightway set about writing a score of little notes to be despatched by negro messengers early in the morning, to her friends in the neighbourhood. To her aunts she wrote simply, and without formal address of any kind, the bare statement: "Captain Baillie Pegram and I are to be married to-morrow, Thursday, at noon, at Christ-Church-in-the-Woods." This note she sent before going to bed. When it was received at The Oaks, a conversation ensued which was largely ejaculatory: "How shocking!" "Yes, and how scandalous!" "What will people say!" "The girl must be bewitched!" "And yet it is better than nursing soldiers, and she an unmarried woman!" "Perhaps. At any rate it is clear that we can exercise no restraint over the poor, headstrong child." "No, Captain Pegram has completely undermined our influence. Of course we cannot lend our countenance to the affair by attending!" "I think we must. Otherwise people will talk. They might even call it a runaway match." "That would be too dreadful!"