oward the gates.

"'We will not be turned out,' he said. 'Let us go in and pay our
respects.'

"'But,' I stammered.

"'Oh, it's all right,' he pursued. 'The fair lady is of age and has the
privilege of choosing her future husband. I shall live in clover, eh?
Well, it is time I lived in something. I have had a hard enough time of
it so far, for a none too homely fellow.'

"I was overwhelmed; more than that, I was sickened by these words, whose
import I understood only too well. Not that I had any special interest
in Miss Dudleigh; indeed, I hardly knew her; but any such woman inspires
respect, and I could not think of her as allied to this man without a
spasm of revolt that almost amounted to fear.

"'You are going to marry her, this white rose!' I exclaimed. 'I should
as soon have thought of your marrying a princess of the royal house. I
hope you appreciate your unbounded good fortune.'

"He pointed to the great chimneys and imposing facade of the fine
structure before us. 'Do you think I am so blind as not to know the
advantage of being the master in a house like that? You must not think
me quite a fool if I am not as clever a fellow as you are. Remember that
I am a poorer one and like my ease better.'

"'But Miss Dudleigh?'

"'Oh, she's a trifle peaked and dull, but she's fond and not too
exacting.'

"I was angry, but had no excuse for showing it. Righteous indignation he
could never have understood, and to have provoked a quarrel without any
definite end in view would have been folly. I remained silent,
therefore, but my heart burned within me.

"It had not lost its heat when we entered her house, and when my eyes
fell upon her seated at her spinet in front of a latticed window that
brought out her gentle figure in all its sweet simplicity, I felt like
clutching, and flinging back over the threshold, which his desecrating
foot should never have crossed, the hollow-hearted being at my side, who
could neither see her beauty nor estimate the worth of her innocent
affection.

"There was an aunt or some such relative in the room with her, but this
did not hinder the glad smile from rising to her lips as she saw us--or
rather him, for she hardly seemed to notice my presence. I learned
afterward that this aunt had been greatly instrumental in bringing these
incongruous natures together; that for reasons of her own, which I have
never attempted to fathom, she thought Edwin Urquhart the best husband
that her ni