nd tell him to wait on Messrs. Green
and Grogram. Cummings is a very proper man: he was recommended to me by
Guinness."

"Oh, ah--yes; your attorney, you mean?" said the earl. "Why, yes, that
will be quite proper, too. Of course Mr Cummings will see the necessity
of absolutely securing Miss Wyndham's fortune."

Nothing further, however, was said between them on the subject; and the
settlements, whatever was their purport, were drawn out without any
visible interference on the part of Lord Ballindine. But Mr Grogram,
the attorney, on his first visit to Grey Abbey on the subject, had no
difficulty in learning that Miss Wyndham was determined to have a will
of her own in the disposition of her own money.

Fanny told her lover the whole episode of Lord Kilcullen's offer to
her; but she told it in such a way as to redound rather to her cousin's
credit than otherwise. She had learned to love him as a cousin and
a friend, and his ill-timed proposal to her had not destroyed the
feeling. A woman can rarely be really offended at the expression of
love, unless it be from some one unfitted to match with her, either in
rank or age. Besides, Fanny thought that Lord Kilcullen had behaved
generously to her when she so violently repudiated his love: she
believed that it had been sincere; she had not even to herself accused
him of meanness or treachery; and she spoke of him as one to be pitied,
liked, and regarded; not as one to be execrated and avoided.

And then she confessed to Frank all her fears respecting himself; how
her heart would have broken, had he taken her own rash word as final,
and so deserted her. She told him that she had never ceased to love
him, for a day; not even on that day when, in her foolish spleen, she
had told her uncle she was willing to break off the match; she owned to
him all her troubles, all her doubts; how she had made up her mind to
write to him, but had not dared to do so, lest his answer should be
such as would kill her at once. And then she prayed to be forgiven for
her falseness; for having consented, even for a moment, to forget the
solemn vows she had so often repeated to him.

Frank stopped her again and again in her sweet confessions, and swore
the blame was only his. He anathematised himself, his horses, and
his friends, for having caused a moment's uneasiness to her; but she
insisted on receiving his forgiveness, and he was obliged to say that
he forgave her. With all his follies, and all