gated my
wedded life."

"I instigated!"--exclaimed Mr Croft. And then he stopped short, both in
his speech and walk.

"Yes," said the lady, stopping also, and turning to face him, "you did,
and you ought to remember it. You said if I had a husband to travel
about with me you would like very much to employ me in the search for Mr
Keswick, and it was solely on that account that I went and got married."
Observing the look of blank and utter amazement on his face, she smiled,
and said: "Please don't look so horribly astonished. Mr Null is void."

As she made this remark the lady looked up at her companion with a smile
and an expression of curiosity as to how he would take the announcement.
Lawrence gazed blankly at her for a moment, and then he broke into a
laugh. "You don't mean to say," he exclaimed, "that Mr Null is an
imaginary being?"

"Entirely so," she replied. "My dear Freddy is nothing but a fanciful
idea, with no attribute whatever except the name."

"You are a most extraordinary young person," said Lawrence; "almost as
extraordinary as your aunt. What in the world made you think of doing
such a thing? and why do you wish to keep up the delusion among your
relatives, even so far as to drive your aunt to the point of getting you
divorced from your airy husband?" And he laughed again. "I told you
how I came to think of it," she said, as they walked on again. "It was
very plain that if I wanted to travel about as your agent I must be
married, and I have found a husband quite a protection and an advantage,
even when he doesn't go about with me; and as to keeping up the
delusion, as you call it, in my own family, I have found that to be
absolutely necessary, at least for the present. My aunt, even when I was
a little girl, determined to take my marriage into her own hands; and
since I have returned to her, this desire has come up again in the most
astonishing way. It is her principal subject of conversation with me.
Were it not for the protection which my dear Freddy Null gives me I
should be thrown bodily into the arms of the person whom my aunt has
selected, and he would be obliged to take me, whether he wanted to or
not, or be cast forth forever. So you see how important it is that my
aunt should think I am married; and I do hope you will not tell anybody
about Mr Null."

"Of course I will keep your secret," said Croft. "You may rely upon
that; but don't you think--do you believe that this sort of thing is
a