"My word! you are hot. We shall be asking him ere long to join our hands--so he must be prepared in time--he will have a pleasure in calculating the amount of his fee." "Cousin Luke," said Bessie, "I am not sorry that he has mentioned this, for so I can answer him in your presence, and give him such an answer before you as he has had from me in private, but would not take. Never, neither by persuasion, nor by force, shall I be got to give my consent." In spite of his self-control, Fox turned livid with rage. "Is that final?" he asked. "It is final." "We shall see," sneered he. "Say what you will, I do not withdraw." "For shame of you!" exclaimed Luke, stepping between Bessie and Fox. "If you have any good feeling in you, do not pester her with a suit that is odious to her, and after what has happened to-night, should, to yourself, be impossible." "Oh!" jeered Fox, "you yourself proposed silence, and are bursting to let the matter escape." "Desist," said Luke. "Desist from a pursuit that is cruel to her, and which you cannot prosecute with honour to yourself." "I will not desist!" retorted Fox. "Tell me this. Who first sought to bring it about? Was it I? No. Magdalen Cleverdon was she who prepared it, then came the Squire himself. It's the Cleverdons who have hunted me--who try to catch me; not I who have been the hunter. You call me Fox, and you have been hue and tally ho! after me." "There is my father!" gasped Bessie, and ran from the room. She found the old man in the passage with his candle, unlocking his sitting-room door. "Oh, father!" she said, breathlessly, for the scene that had occurred had taken away her breath, "here is Luke come--he must see you." "What! at night? I cannot. I am busy." "But, father, he has a message." "A message? What, another? I will not see him." "For a moment, uncle. It is a word from Anthony," said Luke, entering the passage. "One word, shall I say it here, or within?" "I care not--if it is one word, say it here; but only one word." He was fumbling with the key in the lock. His hand that held the candle shook, and the wax fell on his fingers and on the cuff of his coat. He had the key inserted in the door, and could not turn it in the wards. "Very well," said Luke. "You shall have it in one word--Never."