'Don't get riled; but the fact is I don't see my way out of my present business'--(this last word was substituted for another, crossed out, which looked like 'scrape')--'for a couple of months, maybe. Therefore, you see, my liberty and wishes being at present interfered with, it would be very hard lines if poor Dorcas should be held to her bargain. Therefore, I will say this--_she is quite free_ for me. Only, of course, I don't decline to fulfil my part whenever at liberty. In the meantime I return the miniature, with her hair in it, which I constantly wore about me since I got it. But I have no right to it any longer, till I know her decision. Don't be too hard on me, dear Chelford. It is a very old lark has got me into this present vexation. In the meantime, I wish to make it quite clear what I mean. Not being able by any endeavour'--(here a nautical phrase scratched out, and 'endeavour' substituted)--'of mine to be up to time, and as these are P.P. affairs, I must only forfeit. I mean, I am at the lady's disposal, either to fulfil my engagement the earliest day I can, or to be turned adrift. That is all I can say. 'In more trouble than you suppose, I remain, dear Chelford, yours, whatever you may think, faithfully, 'MARK WYLDER' CHAPTER XXIX. HOW MARK WYLDER'S DISAPPEARANCE AFFECTED HIS FRIENDS. Lady Chelford's wrath was now turned anew upon Wylder--and the inconvenience of having no visible object on which to expend it was once more painfully felt. Railing at Mark Wylder was, alas! but beating the air. The most crushing invective was--thanks to his adroit mystification--simply a soliloquy. Poor Lady Chelford, who loved to give the ingenious youngsters of both sexes, when occasion invited, a piece of her mind, was here--in the case of this vulgar and most provoking delinquent--absolutely tongue-tied! If it had been possible to tell Wylder what she thought of him it would, perhaps, have made her more tolerable than she was for some days after the arrival of that letter, to other members of the family. The idea of holding Miss Brandon to this engagement, and proroguing her nuptials from day to day, to convenience the bridegroom--absent without explanation--was of course quite untenable. Fortunately, the marriage, considering the antiquity and the territorial position of the two families who were involved, was to have been a very quiet affair indeed--no festivities--no fire-works--nothing of the nature of a county gala--no glare or thunder--no concussion of society--a dignified but secluded marriage. This divested the inevitable dissolution of these high relations of a great deal of its _eclat_ and ridicule.