as not willing to do. Porson, he was sure, would at once give
way should his daughter raise any objection, and in Morris's tact and
persuasive powers the Colonel had no faith.

In the issue, confident in his own diplomatic abilities, he determined
to manage the affair himself and to speak to his niece. The mistake was
grave, for whereas she was as wax to her father or her lover, something
in her uncle's manner, or it may have been his very personality, always
aroused in Mary a spirit of opposition. On this occasion, too, that
manner was not fortunate, for he put the proposal before her as a thing
already agreed upon by all concerned, and one to which her consent was
asked as a mere matter of form.

Instantly Mary became antagonistic. She pretended not to understand;
she asked for reasons and explanations. Finally, she announced in idle
words, beneath which ran a current of determination, that neither her
father nor Morris could really wish this hurried marriage, since had
they done so one or other of them would have spoken to her on the
subject. When pressed, she intimated very politely, but in language
whereof the meaning could hardly be mistaken, that she held this fixing
of the date to be peculiarly her own privilege; and when still further
pressed said plainly that she considered her father too ill for her to
think of being married at present.

"But they both desire it," expostulated the Colonel.

"They have not told me so," Mary answered, setting her red lips.

"If that is all, they will tell you so soon enough, my dear girl."

"Perhaps, uncle, after they have been directed to do so, but that is not
quite the same thing."

The Colonel saw that he had made a mistake, and too late changed his
tactics.

"You see, Mary, your father's state of health is precarious; he might
grow worse."

She tapped her foot upon the ground. Of these allusions to the possible,
and, indeed, the certain end of her beloved father's illness, she had a
kind of horror.

"In that event, that dreadful event," she answered, "he will need me, my
whole time and care to nurse him. These I might not be able to give if I
were already married. I love Morris very dearly. I am his for whatever I
may be worth; but I was my father's before Morris came into my life, and
he has the first claim upon me."

"What, then, do you propose?" asked the Colonel curtly, for opposition
and argument bred no meekness in his somewhat arbitrary breast.

"To b