had been to Overhaddon; but I did not press his
confidence, nor did he give it.

Sir George's treatment of Dorothy had taught her that the citadel of her
father's wrath could be stormed only by gentleness, and an opportunity was
soon presented in which she used that effective engine of feminine warfare
to her great advantage.

As I have told you, Sir George was very rich. No man, either noble or
gentle, in Derbyshire or in any of the adjoining counties, possessed so
great an estate or so beautiful a hall as did he. In France we would have
called Haddon Hall a grand chateau.

Sir George's deceased wife had been a sister to the Earl of Derby, who
lived at the time of which I am now writing. The earl had a son, James,
who was heir to the title and to the estates of his father. The son was a
dissipated, rustic clown--almost a simpleton. He had the vulgarity of a
stable boy and the vices of a courtier. His associates were chosen from
the ranks of gamesters, ruffians, and tavern maids. Still, he was a scion
of one of the greatest families of England's nobility.

After Sir George's trouble with Dorothy, growing out of his desire that I
should wed her, the King of the Peak had begun to feel that in his
beautiful daughter he had upon his hands a commodity that might at any
time cause him trouble. He therefore determined to marry her to some
eligible gentleman as quickly as possible, and to place the heavy
responsibility of managing her in the hands of a husband. The stubborn
violence of Sir George's nature, the rough side of which had never before
been shown to Dorothy, in her became adroit wilfulness of a quality that
no masculine mind may compass. But her life had been so entirely
undisturbed by opposing influences that her father, firm in the belief
that no one in his household would dare to thwart his will, had remained
in dangerous ignorance of the latent trouble which pervaded his daughter
from the soles of her shapely feet to the top of her glory-crowned head.

Sir George, in casting about for a son-in-law, had hit upon the heir to
the house of Derby as a suitable match for his child, and had entered into
an alliance offensive and defensive with the earl against the common
enemy, Dorothy. The two fathers had partly agreed that the heir to Derby
should wed the heiress of Haddon. The heir, although he had never seen his
cousin except when she was a plain, unattractive girl, was entirely
willing for the match, but the he