edian in his conduct to
her,--he was only a good fellow. I have spoken of the satisfaction that
Sir Edmund took in his daughter-in-law that was to be; he delighted in
looking at her, longed for her when she was out of his sight, and
had her, with her mother, staying with him in the country for weeks
together. If Ambrose was not so constantly at her side as he might have
been, this deficiency was covered by his father's devotion to her, by
her appearance of being already one of the family. Mr. Tester was away
as he might be away if they were already married.

VI.

In October I met him at Doubleton; we spent three days there together.
He was enjoying his respite, as he didn't scruple to tell me; and he
talked to me a great deal--as usual--about Lady Vandeleur. He did n't
mention Joscelind's name, except by implication in this assurance of how
much he valued his weeks of grace.

"Do you mean to say that, under the circumstances, Lady Vandeleur is
willing to marry you?"

I made this inquiry more expressively, doubtless, than before; for when
we had talked of the matter then he had naturally spoken of her consent
as a simple contingency. It was contingent upon the lapse of the first
months of her bereavement; it was not a question he could begin to press
a few days after her husband's death.

"Not immediately, of course; but if I wait, I think so." That, I
remember, was his answer.

"If you wait till you get rid of that poor girl, of course."

"She knows nothing about that,--it's none of her business."

"Do you mean to say she does n't know you are engaged?"

"How should she know it, how should she believe it, when she sees how I
love her?" the young man exclaimed; but he admitted afterwards that he
had not deceived her, and that she rendered full justice to the motives
that had determined him. He thought he could answer for it that she
would marry him some day or other.

"Then she is a very cruel woman," I said, "and I should like, if you
please, to hear no more about her." He protested against this, and, a
month later, brought her up again, for a purpose. The purpose, you will
see, was a very strange one indeed. I had then come back to town; it
was the early part of December. I supposed he was hunting, with his own
hounds; but he appeared one afternoon in my drawing-room and told me I
should do him a great favor if I would go and see Lady Vandeleur.

"Go and see her? Where do you mean, in Norfolk?"

"S