he asked as soon as Grey entered the dingy
little room, not in Chancery Lane, but in its neighbourhood, which
was allocated to him for his signing purposes.

"Yes,"--said Grey; "she has written to me."

"And told you about her cousin George. I tried to hinder her from
writing, but she is very wilful."

"Why should you have hindered her? If the thing was to be told, it is
better that it should be done at once."

"But I hoped that there might be an escape. I don't know what you
think of all this, Grey, but to me it is the bitterest misfortune
that I have known. And I've had some bitter things, too," he
added,--thinking of that period of his life, when the work of which
he was ashamed was first ordained as his future task.

"What is the escape that you hoped?" asked Grey.

"I hardly know. The whole thing seems to me to be so mad, that I
partly trusted that she would see the madness of it. I am not sure
whether you know anything of my nephew George?" asked Mr Vavasor.

"Very little," said Grey.

"I believe him to be utterly an adventurer,--a man without means and
without principle,--upon the whole about as bad a man as you may
meet. I give you my word, Grey, that I don't think I know a worse
man. He's going to marry her for her money; then he will beggar her,
after that he'll ill-treat her, and yet what can I do?"

"Prevent the marriage."

"But how, my dear fellow? Prevent it! It's all very well to say that,
and it's the very thing I want to do. But how am I to prevent it?
She's as much her own master as you are yours. She can give him every
shilling of her fortune to-morrow. How am I to prevent her from
marrying him?"

"Let her give him every shilling of her fortune to-morrow," said
Grey.

"And what is she to do then?" asked Mr Vavasor.

"Then--then,--then,--then let her come to me," said John Grey; and as
he spoke there was the fragment of a tear in his eye, and the hint of
quiver in his voice.

Even the worldly, worn-out, unsympathetic nature of John Vavasor was
struck, and, as it were, warmed by this.

"God bless you; God bless you, my dear fellow. I heartily wish
for her sake that I could look forward to any such an end to this
affair."

"And why not look forward to it? You say that he merely wants her
money. As he wants it let him have it!"

"But Grey, you do not know Alice; you do not understand my girl. When
she had lost her fortune nothing would induce her to become your
wife."

"Leave th