Edward's attitude was a mixture of pleasure and anxiety. He said he liked me personally, and there was no one to whom he would rather see his sister married if he saw no difficulties in the way. "You won't tell us where you come from," he said rather peevishly. "No one can call me curious about my neighbours' affairs--I have far too many and important ones of my own to occupy me--but if you are going to marry my sister I _should_ like to know something more about you. How _did_ you come here? If you walked from the Highlands, you couldn't have come into Culbut on the side on which my father first saw you." "I have already told you how I came," I said. "I walked over the moors, and came through an underground passage into the wood where your father found me. I don't profess to understand it; but that is exactly how it happened." He looked at me suspiciously. "My dear fellow," he said, "you are playing with me. My father found you asleep in a little copse that you have to pass through to get to the Female Penitentiary, which he was visiting that afternoon. Beyond that there is at least a mile of suburb; it is on the high-road to the town of Somersault, and the country is well populated all the way." "I am not surprised to hear it," I said. "I told you that I did not understand what had happened. But I have given you the facts as I remember them." "Then it is very plain," said Edward, "that you must have suffered in your brain, and have escaped from some lunatic asylum. Your behaviour when we first met would seem to point to that; and the wildness of the ideas which you disclosed to me was more like what one would expect to exist in the brain of a maniac than anything else. I think it is very likely that you do come from the Highlands; or why should you have mentioned that region at all? Your appearance is good, and it is evident that you have come from some place where you have filled a position of dignity." "I am glad that it strikes you like that," I said. "But I don't feel in the least like a lunatic. In fact, I am quite sure that I am as sane as you are." "I think you are, _now_," said Edward; "and I don't see any reason why you shouldn't remain so. If that is really the solution of your eccentricities, then all my difficulties are done away with, and I can welcome you, my dear fellow, cordially as a brother-in-law." "Oh!" I said, somewhat taken aback. "You don't think that I might break out again?" "I should think it is unlikely; but if you did, we could easily have you put away for a time. The great advantage would be that Miriam could always get a divorce on the ground of insanity of partner, whenever she wished it." "Is that a ground for divorce in Upsidonia?" "Yes; the passing of that law has been a great boon. People under suspicion of weak intellect have become much more marriageable than they were before." "I shouldn't like to begin married life with the idea of a divorce hanging over me."