or Delavie. "No wonder the
proposals struck me as strange and ambiguous. Whose writing was it?"

"Mine, at his dictation," said the youth. "He was unwilling, but
my importunity was backed by my mother's threats, conveyed through
Hargrave, that unless Aurelia became his wife she should be disposed of
otherwise, and that his sanity might be inquired into. Hargrave, who
is much attached to my uncle, and is in great awe of my Lady, was
thoroughly frightened, and implored him to secure himself and the young
lady by consenting, thinking, too, that anything that would rouse him
would be beneficial."

"It is strange!" mused the Major. "A clear-headed punctilious man
like your uncle, to lend himself to a false marriage! His ten years of
melancholy must have changed him greatly!"

"Less than you suppose, sir; but you will remember that my mother is
esteemed as a terrible power by all concerned with her. Even when she
seemed to love me tenderly, I was made to know what it was to cross her
will, and alas! she always carries her point."

"It did seem a mode of protection," said Betty, more kindly.

"And" added the youth, "my uncle impressed on me from the first that
he only consented on condition the I treated this wedlock as betrothal
alone, never met my sweet love save in his dark room, and never revealed
myself to her. He said it was a mere expedient for guarding her until
I shall come of age, or Mr. Wayland comes home, when I shall woo her
openly, and if needful, repeat the ceremony with her full knowledge.
Meanwhile I wrote the whole to my stepfather, and am amazed that he has
never written nor come home."

"That is the only rational thing I have heard," said the Major.
"Though--did your uncle expect your young blood to keep the terms?"

"Indeed, sir, I was frightened enough the first evening that I ventured
on any advances, for they startled her enough to make her swoon away.
I carried her from her room, and my uncle dragged me back before the
colour came back to that lovely face so that the women might come to
her. That was the only time I ever saw her save through the chinks of
the shutters. Judge of the distraction I lived in!"

Betty looked shocked, but her father chuckled a little, though he
maintained his tone of censure "And may I inquire how often these
distracting interviews took place?"

"Cruelly seldom for one to whom they were life itself! Mar is, as you
know, colonel of my corps, and my liberty has been