rd read her like an open
book, and promptly took the initiative before she could question.

"And yet, Mrs. Forrest, would you have had her--a woman of such
superior attainments and character--would your husband have had her
marry a man to whom she could not look up?--whose character and, pardon
me, whose habits were so, let us say, unsettled?"

"Then she ought to have left before. I know she says she never dreamed
of its being her uncle's plan or hope,--never dreamed that the young
man was in earnest. It was all nonsense to say she couldn't marry a man
whom she did not look up to and respect. He is only a year younger than
she is, and lots of girls marry men younger than themselves,--especially
when such a fortune was involved. Why! Mr. Courtlandt would have left
them everything he had in the world, if she would only have consented."

"But women form their own ideals, dear lady, and she may have had a man
in view whom she did look up to, honor, and love. Is not that a
reasonable theory?" And the doctor's eyes, full of sympathy and
deference, watched his impulsive patient narrowly withal. How well he
knew her! She fell instantly into the trap.

"But she hadn't! I could forgive her easily if that were so, but she
told the captain it was purely and simply that she could not and would
not marry Philip Courtlandt or any man like him."

"But I fancied from what--from various circumstances--that the young
man was very dissipated--dangerously so, in fact. Would you counsel
your sister to marry such a man?"

"Well, why not? He has been wild, I know. My husband looked into the
whole case, and, of course, he sustains her. Phil Courtlandt had to go
into a retreat once, but I believe it was because she treated him so.
His father was sure that she could reform and make a man of him, and he
almost implored her to take pity on his gray hairs and save his boy. I
tell you I think it was sheer ingratitude. Even if she couldn't have
reformed him, there would have been all that money." And Mrs. Forrest
sighed pathetically at thought of the thousands her hard-headed,
hard-hearted sister had refused. Bayard, congratulating himself on his
success thus far, had still another point on which he desired
information,--a vital point.

"What seems so bad about the whole matter," he said, after a
sympathetic echo of the lady's sigh, "is the disappointment of old Mr.
Courtlandt. No doubt, despite their cousinship, this has long been his
cherish