e the arbitress of my
destiny.'

'No; I've nothing to do--do go! Only promise you'll not do nothing
dangerous--'

'Reject me, and life is intolerable. Where the maddened crowd rise
upon their tyrants, there in thickest of the fray--'

'You'll be the first to take to your heels, I'll be bound! Ain't you
ashamed of yourself, to be ranting and frightening a poor girl that
fashion?' cried the friendly dragon Martha, descending on them.

'Do you apply that language to me, ma'am?'

'That I do! and richly you deserve it, too, sir! See if your missus
doesn't hear of your tricks, if I find you at this again.'

The 'sex' fairly scolded the courteous Delaford off the field; and
though she turned her wrath on Charlotte for having encouraged him, and
wondered what the poor young man over the seas would think of it, her
interposition had never been so welcome. Charlotte cried herself into
tranquillity, and was only farther disturbed by a dismal epistle,
conveyed by the shoe-boy on the morning of departure, breathing the
language of despair, and yet announcing that she had better think twice
of the four hundred pounds and expectations, for that it was her
destiny that she and no other should be the bride of Delaford.

'If I could only know he would do nothing rash!' sighed Charlotte.

Jane comforted her; Martha held that he was the last man in the world
who would do anything rash. Miss Conway's Marianne, who was left
behind, treated Charlotte as something ignominious, but looked so ill,
miserable, and pining, that Miss Mercy was persuaded she was going into
a decline, and treated her with greater kindness than she had met since
she was a child.

In the meantime, Fitzjocelyn had begun with a fit of bashfulness. The
knowledge that this was the crisis, and that all his friends looked to
the result of the expedition, made him feel as if he were committing
himself whenever he handed Isabel in or out of a carriage, and find no
comfort except in Virginia's chattering.

This wore off quickly; the new scene took effect on his impressible
mind, and the actual sights and sounds drove out all the rest. His
high spirits came back, he freely hazarded Mrs. Frost's old
boarding-school French, and laughed at the infinite blunders for which
Virginia took him to task, was excessively amused at Delaford's
numerous adventures, and enjoyed everything to the utmost. To Miss
Conway he turned naturally as the person best able to enter into