wn the long
passage, all unaware, poor lady, that his heart was beating with
impatience to get away, and that the disappointment for which she
wanted to console him had at the present moment not the slightest real
hold upon his perverse heart. "Oh, my dear boy, I hope you don't think
it's my fault," said Miss Dora, with tears. "It must have come to
this, dear, sooner or later: you see, poor Leonora has such a sense of
responsibility; but it is very hard upon us, Frank, who love you so
much, that she should always take her own way."

"Then why don't you rebel?" said the Curate, who, in the thought of
seeing Lucy, was exhilarated, and dared to jest even upon the awful
power of his aunt. "You are two against one; why don't you take it
into your own hands and rebel?"

Miss Dora repeated the words with an alarmed quiver. "Rebel! oh,
Frank, dear, do you think we could? To be sure, we are co-heiresses,
and have just as good a right as she has; and for your sake, my dear
boy," said the troubled woman, "oh, Frank, I wish you would tell me
what to do! I never should dare to contradict Leonora with no one to
stand by me; and then, if anything happened, you would all think I had
been to blame," said poor aunt Dora, clinging to his arm. She made him
walk back and back again through the long passage, which was sacred to
the chief suite of apartments at the Blue Boar. "We have it all to
ourselves, and nobody can see us here; and oh, my dear boy, if you
would only tell me what I ought to do?" she repeated, with wistful
looks of appeal. Mr Wentworth was too good-hearted to show the
impatience with which he was struggling. He satisfied her as well as
he could, and said good-night half-a-dozen times. When he made his
escape at last, and emerged into the clear blue air of the spring
night, the Perpetual Curate had no such sense of disappointment and
failure in his mind as the three ladies supposed. Miss Leonora's
distinct intimation that Skelmersdale had passed out of the region of
probabilities, had indeed tingled through him at the moment it was
uttered; but just now he was going to see Lucy, anticipating with
impatience the moment of coming into her presence, and nothing in the
world could have dismayed him utterly. He went down the road very
rapidly, glad to find that it was still so early, that the shopkeepers
in George Street were but just putting up their shutters, and that
there was still time for an hour's talk in that bright dr