ve I'll put it off till another day," she said.

"Why so? You don't think that anything really important to you will
not be important to me also?"

"I'm sure of that, but somehow--"

"You mean to say that I have ruffled you?"

"Well;--perhaps; a little."

"Then be unruffled again, like my own dear, honest Clara. I have been
ruffled too, but I'll be as tranquil now as a drawing-room cat." Then
Mrs. Askerton got up from her chair, and seated herself by Clara's
side on the sofa. "Come; you can't go till you've told me; and if you
hesitate, I shall think that you mean to quarrel with me."

"I'll come to you to-morrow."

"No, no; you shall tell me to-day. All to-morrow you'll be preparing
for your cousin."

"What nonsense!"

"Or else you'll come prepared to vindicate him, and then we shan't
get on any further. Tell me what it is to-day. You can't leave me in
curiosity after what you have said."

"You've heard of Captain Aylmer, I think."

"Of course I've heard of him."

"But you've never seen him?"

"You know I never have."

"I told you that he was at Perivale when Mrs. Winterfield died."

"And now he has proposed, and you are going to accept him? That will
indeed be important. Is it so?--say. But don't I know it is so? Why
don't you speak?"

"If you know it, why need I speak?"

"But it is so? Oh, Clara, I am so glad. I congratulate you with all
my heart,--with all my heart. My dearest, dearest Clara! What a happy
arrangement! What a success! It is just as it should be. Dear, good
man! to come forward in that sensible way, and put an end to all the
little family difficulties!"

"I don't know so much about success. Who is it that is successful?"

"You, to be sure."

"Then by the same measurement he must be unsuccessful."

"Don't be a fool, Clara."

"Of course I have been successful if I've got a man that I can love
as my husband."

"Now, my dear, don't be a fool. Of course all that is between you and
him, and I don't in the least doubt that it is all as it should be.
If Captain Aylmer had been the elder brother instead of the younger,
and had all the Aylmer estates instead of the Perivale property, I
know you would not accept him if you did not like him."

"I hope not."

"I am sure you would not. But when a girl with nothing a year has
managed to love a man with two or three thousand a year, and has
managed to be loved by him in return,--instead of going through the
same process with the cur