ng, I should have told you so. I shall be all right enough,
don't you fear, when I get home. I promised father I should settle, and
so I mean--but a wedding trip is a wedding trip, and ladies mustn't be
baulked."

"Certainly not," answered Allcraft, grateful for as much as this--"then,
when do you think of reaching home?"

"Oh, before you, I'll wager! We haven't got much more to see. We went to
the Jordan de Plants yesterday. We are going to the Pantheon to-morrow.
We shall soon get done. Make your mind easy."

"As soon as you have visited these places, I am to understand, then,
that you return to business?"

"Exactly so."

"And may I venture to intreat you to abstain from visiting the
gambling-house again?"

"Oh, don't you worry yourself! If you had only spoken at first like a
gentleman, I should have promised you without being asked."

"Both you and Mrs Brammel must see, I am sure, the very great propriety
of avoiding all such scenes."

"Yes," answered Mary Anne; and then repeating her husband's words, "but
if you had only spoken at first like a gentleman!"

"Perhaps I was too hasty, madam. It is a fault that I have. We shall
understand one another much better for the future. You will be at home
in about--ten days we'll say, from the present time, at latest."

"Oh, don't fix days, I never could bear it! We shall be all right. Will
you stay breakfast?"

Michael excused himself, and, having done all that was permitted him,
departed. With a sad spirit he encountered his lady, and with gloomy
forebodings his mind was filled that day. Augustus Brammel was destined
to be his thorn, his trial, and his punishment. He could see it already.
His house, otherwise so stable, so promising, and so prosperous, would
receive a mortal blow from this one threatening point. It must be warded
off. The hurtful limb must by degrees be got away. He must, from this
time forward, engage himself in its removal. It was, after all, a
consolation to have met the pair, and to have succeeded so far in
frightening them home again, as he fully believed he had. For a time at
least, he conceived that Brammel was still safe. This conviction gave
him courage, and carried him on his road to Lyons, with a heart not
altogether ill at ease, and without good hope. In the meanwhile Mrs
Brammel had inveighed, in the most unmeasured terms, against the
insolent behaviour of Mr Allcraft, the pride and arrogance of his wife,
whom she had never seen--th