alone, I
think. This is a queer old house, Miss Mowbray; and this is the queerest
part of it. Walls have ears, they say; and there are so many holes and
corners in this mansion, that one ought never to talk secrets above
one's breath."

"I am yet to learn, sir," said Eleanor, "that there is any secret to be
communicated."

"Why, not much, I own," replied the doctor; "at least what has occurred
is no secret in the house by this time. What do you think _has_
happened?"

"It is impossible for me to conjecture. Nothing to Ranulph, I hope."

"Nothing of consequence, I trust,--though he is part concerned with it."

"What is it?" asked Eleanor.

"Pray satisfy her curiosity, doctor," interposed Mrs. Mowbray.

"Well, then," said Small, rather more gravely, "the fact of the matter
stands thus:--Lady Rookwood, who, as you know, was not the meekest wife
in the world, now turns out by no means the gentlest mother, and has
within this hour found out that she has some objection to your union
with her son."

"You alarm me, doctor."

"Don't alarm yourself at all. It will be got over without difficulty,
and only requires a little management. Ranulph is with her now, and I
doubt not will arrange all to her satisfaction."

"What was her objection?" asked Eleanor; "was it any one founded upon my
obligation to Luke--my oath?"

"Tut, tut! dismiss that subject from your mind entirely," said the
doctor. "That oath is no more binding on your conscience than would have
been the ties of marriage had you been wedded by yon recusant Romish
priest, Father Checkley, upon whose guilty head the Lord be merciful!
Bestow not a thought upon it. My anxiety, together with that of your
mother, is to see you now, as speedily as may be, wedded to Ranulph, and
then that idle question is set at rest for ever; and therefore, even if
such a thing were to occur as that Lady Rookwood should not yield her
consent to your marriage, as that consent is totally unnecessary, we
must go through the ceremonial without it."

"The grounds of Lady Rookwood's objections----" said Mrs. Mowbray.

"Ay, the grounds of her ladyship's objections," interposed Small, who,
when he had once got the lead, liked nobody to talk but himself, "are
simply these, and exactly the sort of objections one would expect her to
raise. She cannot bear the idea of abandoning the control of the house
and estates to other hands. She cannot, and will not relinquish her
station, as head of t