ly: "I must and will hear
it now."

"Well, to begin with, you must understand that she and her husband are
first cousins. Have you mastered that fact?"

"Though not particularly gifted, I think I have. I rather flatter
myself I could master more than that," says Molly, significantly,
giving his ear a pinch, short but sharp.

"She is also a cousin of mine, though not so near. Well, about three
years ago, when she was only Cecil Hargrave, and extremely poor, an
uncle of theirs died, leaving his entire property, which was very
considerable, between them, on the condition that they should marry
each other. If they refused, it was to go to a lunatic asylum, or a
refuge for dogs, or something equally uninteresting."

"He would have made a very successful lunatic himself, it seems to me.
What a terrible condition!"

"Now, up to this they had been utter strangers to each other, had never
even been face to face, and being told they must marry whether they
liked it or not, or lose the money, they of course on the spot
conceived an undying hatred for each other. Penthony even refused to
see his possible wife, when urged to do so, and Cecil, on her part,
quite as strenuously opposed a meeting. Still, they could not make up
their minds to let such a good property slip through their fingers."

"It _was_ hard."

"Things dragged on so for three months, and then, Cecil, being a woman,
was naturally the one to see a way out of it. She wrote to Sir Penthony
saying, if he would sign a deed giving her a third of the money, and
promising never to claim her as his wife, or interfere with her in any
way, beyond having the marriage ceremony read between them, she would
marry him."

"And he?" asks Molly, eagerly, bending forward in her excitement.

"Why, he agreed, of course. What was it to him? he had never seen her,
and had no wish to make her acquaintance. The document was signed, the
license was procured. On the morning of the wedding, he looked up a
best man, and went down to the country, saw nothing of his bride until
a few minutes before the service began, when she entered the room
covered with so thick a veil that he saw quite as little of her then,
was married, made his best bow to the new Lady Stafford, and
immediately returning to town, set out a few days later for a foreign
tour, which has lasted ever since. Now, is not that a thrilling
romance, and have I not described it graphically?"

"The 'Polite Story-teller' sinks