you utter?'

The young earl, with the greatest calmness and deference of manner,
approached the professor, laid his hand upon his heart, and, with a
graceful inclination, said, slowly and emphatically--

'Upon my honour, sir, she _is_ my wife!'

'What, my lord!' exclaimed the still more and more amazed professor--and
now starting from his chair in his excitation--'do you repeat your most
unbecoming and incredible assertion?'

'I do, sir,' replied the earl, in the same calm and respectful manner.
'I do repeat it, and say, before God, that Jessy Flowerdew is the
lawfully married wife of the Earl of Wistonbury.'

'Well, my lord, well,' said the professor, in angry agitation, 'I know
what is my duty in this most extraordinary case. It is to give instant
notice to the countess, your mother, of what I must call, my lord, the
extremely rash and unadvised step you have taken.'

To this threat and rebuke, the earl replied, with the utmost composure
and politeness of manner--'I was not unprepared, sir, for your
resentment on this occasion. Neither do I take it in the least amiss.
You merely do your duty when you tell me I have forgotten mine. But the
step I have taken, sir, allow me to say, although it may appear
unadvised, has not been so in reality. I have weighed well the
consequences, and am quite prepared to abide them.'

'Be it so, my lord, be it so,' replied the professor. 'I have only now
to remark that, as you say you were prepared for _my_ resentment, I hope
you are also prepared for your mother's, my lord--a matter of much more
serious moment.'

'My mother, sir, I will take in my own hands,' replied the earl; 'she
can resent, but she can also forgive.'

'I have no more to say, my lord, no more,' rejoined Mr. Lockerby; 'the
matter must now be put into the hands of those who have a better right
to judge of its propriety than I have. I shall presume on no further
remark on the subject.'

'Come, sir,' said the earl, smiling and extending his hand to the
professor, 'let this, if you please, be no cause for difference between
us. I propose that we allow the matter to lie in abeyance until my
mother has been appealed to; she being the only person, you know, who
has a right to be displeased with my proceeding, or whose wishes I was
called upon to consult in this matter.'

'Excuse me, my lord,' replied the worthy professor; 'but I must
positively decline all interchange of courtesies which may, by any
possibility,