; but it would all
be very new and strange to her, and, although she was a brave girl at
heart, she shrank from making such a plunge as this.

"How are we going to live?" repeated Lawrence. "That, of course, is
to be as you shall choose, but I have a plan to propose to you, and I
want very much to hear what you think about it. And the plan is, that
we shall not live anywhere for a year or two, but wander, fancy free,
over as much of the world as pleases us; and then decide where we
shall settle down, and how we shall like to do it."

If Annie's answer had been expressed in words, it might have been
given here. It may be said, however, that it was very quick, very
affirmative, and, in more ways than one, highly satisfactory to
Lawrence.

"Is it London, and a landlady, and tea?" she presently asked.

"Yes, it is that," he said.

"Is it the shops on the Boulevards?"

"Yes," said Lawrence.

"And the Appian Way? And the Island of Capri? And snow mountains in
the distance?" she asked.

"In their turn, most certainly," said her lover, "and it shall be the
midnight sun, and the Nile, if you like."

"Freddy," exclaimed the late Mrs Null, "I thank thee for what thou
hast given me!" And she clasped the hand of Lawrence in both her own.

CHAPTER XXXII.

The marriage of Junius Keswick and Roberta March was appointed for the
fifteenth of January, and Mr Brandon had arranged to be in New York a
few days before the event. He intended, however, to leave Midbranch
soon after the first of the year, and to spend a week with some of his
friends in Richmond.

It was on the afternoon of New Year's Day, and Mr Brandon was sitting
in his library with Colonel Pinckney Macon, an elderly gentleman
of social habits and genial temper, whom Mr Brandon had invited to
Midbranch to spend the holidays, and who was afterwards to be his
travelling companion as far as Richmond. The two had had a very good
dinner, and were now sitting before the fire smoking their pipes, and
paying occasional attention to two tumblers of egg-nogg, which stood
on a small table between them. They were telling anecdotes of olden
times, and were in very good humor indeed, when a servant came in with
a note, which had just been brought for Mr Brandon. The old gentleman
took the missive, and put on his eye-glasses, but the moment he read
the address, he let his hand fall on his knee, and gave vent to an
angry ejaculation.

"It's from that rabid old witch,