“I shouldn’t like to take you away from him, Ralph,” she continued, “specially just now, for I could see quite well at Southbourne that you are almost like a son to him; you don’t know what things he said about you when you were talking to Mrs. Hereford that morning. He would miss you dreadfully. Do you think we could still be in the same house with him when we are married? Or should I bother him?” “I don’t think you would be likely to do that,” said Ralph smiling. “When I tell him about our marriage I will see how the land lies. I wonder, darling, whether you will be able to put up with all the discomforts of life in a travelling company?” “Why it will be the greatest fun!” cried Evereld. “Well, I have found it a very jolly life, but, you know, wayfaring men naturally have to put up with some discomforts. You will find the endless packing and unpacking, and the settling into fresh lodgings once a week an awful bore.” “But I shall have you, dear,” she said happily. “And nothing else will matter much.” “Then it only remains for us to win the Lord Chancellor’s consent and to tell Macneillie, and find out when he can spare me for a few days. You won’t make me wait long will you?” “I think Parliament meets on the 5th,” said Evereld, “and we are to come back from Ireland in the first week of February. I know the Hereford’s will let me be married from this house, and we will have a quiet wedding. You see we are both of us alone in the world; except the Marriotts and Mr. Macneillie there is really no one to ask, for of course the Mactavishs will keep away from town for some time to come.” “I wonder what will become of poor Lady Mactavish,” said Ralph. “I fancy she has something of her own, so as far as money goes she will be all right. But how she will feel the disgrace!” “I’m not at all sure,” said Evereld, “that now real trouble has overtaken her she won’t give up grumbling. If not I am sorry for Janet for she will have to bear the brunt of it. Oh, Ralph! what a strange world it is! Only last spring the Mactavishs seemed at the very height of their prosperity, and were so enchanted about Minnie’s engagement, and now here is Sir Matthew ruined and disgraced, and Bruce Wylie in prison.” “Well,” said Ralph, “it’s a much better fate than the one they tried to force upon you. It’s not of them I think, but of the thousands they have cruelly injured: if you had seen your father die of a broken heart as I saw mine, you would think prison and exile a very light punishment for those cursed speculators.” “Yes,” assented Evereld, “it was more of the suddenness of the change I was thinking. Last spring, too, you were tramping through Scotland, ill and half starved, and now----” “Now I am the happiest man in the world,” said Ralph his face aglow with ardent love. And after that they forgot all the troubles of the past and sat weaving delicious plans for the future, and enjoying to the full the happy present.