de'il hae me but I'll e'en marry her mysel', and
tak' her awa to save her life! Now, then will I tak' her mysel' or will
you?"

"I will take her!" said the young duke, smiling. Then turning to the
dowager, he added, gravely: "Lady Belgrade, this marriage must and shall
take place immediately. You must add your efforts to mine to overcome
your niece's scruples. Your ladyship has been working against me
heretofore. I hope now, after hearing what the doctor has said, that
you will work with me."

"Of course, if the child's life and health are in question: and, indeed,
this climate is much too severe for her, and she certainly does need
rousing; and as it has been three months now since Sir Lemuel Levison's
funeral, I don't see--But, of course, after all, it is for you and Salome
to decide as you please;" answered Lady Belgrade, in a confused and
hesitating manner, for when the dowager went outside of her
conventionalities she lost herself.

Salome Levison was again besieged by the pleadings of her lover, the
counsels of her solicitor, and the arguments of her physician, all with
the co-operation of her chaperon.

"I do not see what else can be done, my dear," she said to her protegee.
"The ceremony can be performed as quietly as possible, and you two can go
away, and the world be no wiser."

"As if I cared for the world! I will do this in obedience to my dear
father's directions and my betrothed husband's wishes, and I do not even
think of the world," gravely replied Salome.

"Now, then, to the details, my dear. What day shall we fix? And shall the
ceremony be preformed here at the castle or at the church at Lone?"

"Oh, not here! not here! I could not bear to be married here, or at the
Lone church either. No, Lady Belgrade. We must go up to our town house in
London, and be married quietly at St. Peter's in Kensington, where I used
to attend divine service with my dear papa," said Salome, becoming
agitated.

"Very well, my love. But don't excite yourself. We will go. And the
sooner the better. These horrid Scotch mists are aggravating my
rheumatism beyond endurance," concluded the dowager.

It was now the last week in September. But so diligently did the dowager,
and the servants under her orders exert themselves both at Castle Lone
and in London, that before the first of October, Miss Levison, with her
chaperon and their attendants, were all comfortably settled in the
luxurious town-house in the West End.

Th