reasons more
powerful with her than the virtue and happiness of her son," he added
bitterly. "There's the connection, forsooth. As if Lady Aresfield were
fit to bring up an honest man's wife; and there's the fortune to fill up
the void she has made in the Delavie estates."

"Can no one hinder it, sir? Cannot you?"

"As a last resource the poor youth came hither to see whether the
guardian whose wardship has hitherto been a dead letter, were indeed so
utterly obdurate and helpless as had been represented."

"And you have the power?"

"So far as his father's will and the injunctions of his final letter
to me can give it, I have full power. My consent is necessary to his
marriage while still a minor, and I have told my Lady I will never give
it to his wedding a Mar."

"I was sure of it; and it is not true that they will be able to do
without it?

"Without it! Have you heard any more? You pause. I see--she wishes to
declare me of unsound mind. Is that what you mean?"

"So Nurse Dove said, sir," faltered Aurelia; "but it seemed too wicked,
too monstrous, to be possible."

"I understand," he said. "I thought there was an implied threat in
my sweet sister-in-law's soft voice when she spoke of my determined
misanthropy. Well, I think we can guard against that expedient. After
all, it is only till my nephew comes of age, or till his stepfather
returns, that we must keep the enchantress at bay. Then the poor lad
will be safe, providing always that she and her Colonel have not made a
rake of him by that time. Alas, what a wretch am I not to be able to do
more for him! Child, you have seen him?"

"I danced with him, sir, but I was too much terrified to look in his
face. And I saw his cocked hat over the thorn hedge."

"Fancy free," muttered Mr. Belamour. "Fair exile for a cocked hat and
diamond shoe-buckles! You would not recognise him again, nor his voice?"

"No, sir. He scarcely spoke, and I was attending to my steps."

Mr. Belamour laughed, and then asked Aurelia for the passage in the
_Iliad_ where Venus carries off Paris in a cloud. He thanked her
somewhat absently, and then said,

"Dr. Godfrey said something of coming hither before he goes to his
living in Dorsetshire. May I ask of you the favour of writing and
begging him to fix a day not far off, mentioning likewise that my
sister-in-law has been here."

To this invitation Dr. Godfrey replied that he would deviate from the
slow progress of his family coach