of you both. In what did it
originate?"

"Why, the fact is, Harry, she has told us that Alice Goodwin, in the
most decided manner, has rejected your addresses, and confided to you an
avowal of her attachment to Charles here. Now, when I heard this, I felt
highly delighted at it, and said we should have them married, and so
we shall. Then your mother, in flaming indignation at this, enacted
Vesuvius in a blaze, and there she stands ready for another eruption."

"I wish you were in the bottom of Vesuvius, Lindsay; but you shall not
have your way, notwithstanding."

"So I am, my dear, every day in my life. I have a little volcano of my
own here, under the very roof with me; and I tell that volcano that I
will have my own way in this matter, and that this marriage must take
place if Alice is willing; and I'm sure she is, the dear girl."

"Sir," said Woodward, addressing his step-father calmly, "I feel a good
deal surprised that a thinking man, of a naturalise late temper as you
are,--"

"Yes, Harry, I am so."

"Of such a sedate temper as you are, should not recollect the
possibility of my mother, who sometimes takes up impressions hastily, if
not erroneously--as the calmest of us too frequently do--of my mother,
I say, considerably mistaking and unconsciously misrepresenting the
circumstances I mentioned to her."

"But why did you mention them exclusively to her?" asked Charles; "I
cannot see your object in concealing them from the rest of the family,
especially from those who were most interested in the knowledge of
them."

"Simply because I had nothing actually decisive to mention. I
principally confined myself to my own inferences, which unfortunately
my mother, with her eager habit of snatching at conclusions, in this
instance, mistook for facts. I shall satisfy you, Charles, of this, and
of other matters besides; but we will require time."

"I assure you, Harry, that if your mother does not keep her temper
within some reasonable bounds, either she or I shall leave the
house--and I am not likely to be the man to do so."

"This house is mine, Lindsay, and the property is mine--both in my own
right; and you and your family may leave it as soon as you like."

"But you forget that I have property enough to support myself and them
independently of you."

"Wherever you go, my dear papa," said Maria, bursting into tears, "I
will accompany you. I admit it is a painful determination for a daughter
to be forced t