he wrote
her a heap of letters; and all was as right as it could be till the
old master came home."

"Ah, true! I had forgotten Sir Wilfred."

"Ay, he had been away for more than two years in the East, working for
that fine book of his that folks talk about so much; but he was in bad
health, and he had a strange hankering to die in the old Hall. There
is an awful mystery in things, Miss Crystal; for if it had pleased
Providence to have taken the poor old master before he reached the
Hall, our dear Miss Margaret might have been happy now."

"Do you mean that Sir Wilfred objected to the match?"

"Well, I don't rightly know what happened, but Martin and me think
there is some mystery at the bottom. Folks say, who know the young
master, that he has a way of putting off things to the morrow as
should be done to-day, and either ha did not tell his father of his
engagement to Miss Margaret, or his letters went astray in those
foreign parts; but when the old master heard that Mr. Hugh had
promised to marry Miss Margaret, he made an awful scene, and swore
that no Ferrers should be mistress of Redmond Hall."

"Good Heavens! what reason could Sir Wilfred have for refusing his
consent? Margaret was beautiful, rich, and well-born. Do you mean to
say that Sir Hugh was so poor a creature as to give her up for a
whim?"

"No, no, Miss Crystal, dear, we don't understand the rights of it.
When Mr. Hugh left the old master he just rushed up to the Grange to
see Miss Margaret, and to tell her of his father's opposition; but she
had a right brave spirit of her own, and she heartened him up, and
bade him wait patiently and she would win over the old man yet. Well,
it is a sad story, and, as I told you, neither Martin nor me know what
rightly happened. Sir Wilfred came up to talk to Miss Margaret, and
then she sent for Mr. Hugh, and told him they must part, that she
would never marry him. That was before the old master had that stroke
that carried him off, but she held firm to it after his death, and
nothing that Mr. Hugh could say would move her."

"And yet, if ever woman loved man, Margaret loved Hugh Redmond."

"I know it, dearie, no one could look at her and not see that the
light had gone out of her life, and that her heart was just
breaking--how white you have gone, Miss Crystal!"

"I am so sorry for Margaret. Oh! Catharine, Catharine, if I had any
tears left I think I could shed them all for Margaret."

"Keep them for your