say after a slight
pause,--"something else which I can tell you, though I could tell it
to no other person. I can tell you because you would do, and will
do the same. I have told him that any portion of my money is at his
service which may be needed for his purposes before that twelve
months is over."

"Oh, Alice! No;--no. You shall not do that. It is too generous." And
Kate perhaps felt at the moment that her brother was a man to whom
such an offer could hardly be made with safety.

"But I have done it. Mercury, with sixpence in his pocket, is already
posting my generosity at Shap. And, to tell the truth, Kate, it is
no more than fair. He has honestly told me that while the old Squire
lives he will want my money to assist him in a career of which I do
much more than approve. It has been my earnest wish to see him in
Parliament. It will now be the most earnest desire of my heart;--the
one thing as to which I shall feel an intense anxiety. How then can
I have the face to bid him wait twelve months for that which is
specially needed in six months' time? It would be like the workhouses
which are so long in giving bread, that in the mean time the wretches
starve."

"But the wretch shan't starve," said Kate. "My money, small as it is,
will carry him over this bout. I have told him that he shall have it,
and that I expect him to spend it. Moreover, I have no doubt that
Aunt Greenow would lend me what he wants."

"But I should not wish him to borrow from Aunt Greenow. She would
advance him the money, as you say, upon stamped paper, and then talk
of it."

"He shall have mine," said Kate.

"And who are you?" said Alice, laughing. "You are not going to be his
wife?"

"He shall not touch your money till you are his wife," said Kate,
very seriously. "I wish you would consent to change your mind about
this stupid tedious year, and then you might do as you pleased. I
have no doubt such a settlement might be made as to the property
here, when my grandfather hears of it, as would make you ultimately
safe."

"And do you think I care to be ultimately safe, as you call it? Kate,
my dear, you do not understand me."

"I suppose not. And yet I thought that I had known something about
you."

"It is because I do not care for the safety of which you speak that I
am now going to become your brother's wife. Do you suppose that I do
not see that I must run much risk?"

"You prefer the excitement of London to the tranquillity, may