id Crosbie.

"If anybody connected with my family has presumed to tell you that
I intended to do more for my niece Lilian than I have already done,
such person has not only been false, but ungrateful. I have given to
no one any authority to make any promise on behalf of my niece."

"No such promise has been made. It was only a suggestion," said
Crosbie.

He was not in the least aware to whom the squire was alluding in his
anger; but he perceived that his host was angry, and having already
reflected that he should not have alluded to the words which Bernard
Dale had spoken in his friendship, he resolved to name no one.
Bernard, as he sat by listening, knew exactly how the matter stood;
but, as he thought, there could be no reason why he should subject
himself to his uncle's ill-will, seeing that he had committed no sin.

"No such suggestion should have been made," said the squire. "No one
has had a right to make such a suggestion. No one has been placed by
me in a position to make such a suggestion to you without manifest
impropriety. I will ask no further questions about it; but it is
quite as well that you should understand at once that I do not
consider it to be my duty to give my niece Lilian a fortune on her
marriage. I trust that your offer to her was not made under any such
delusion."

"No, sir; it was not," said Crosbie.

"Then I suppose that no great harm has been done. I am sorry if false
hopes have been given to you; but I am sure you will acknowledge that
they were not given to you by me."

"I think you have misunderstood me, sir. My hopes were never very
high; but I thought it right to ascertain your intentions."

"Now you know them. I trust, for the girl's sake, that it will make
no difference to her. I can hardly believe that she has been to blame
in the matter."

Crosbie hastened at once to exculpate Lily; and then, with more
awkward blunders than a man should have made who was so well
acquainted with fashionable life as the Apollo of the Beaufort, he
proceeded to explain that, as Lily was to have nothing, his own
pecuniary arrangements would necessitate some little delay in their
marriage.

"As far as I myself am concerned," said the squire, "I do not like
long engagements. But I am quite aware that in this matter I have no
right to interfere, unless, indeed--" and then he stopped himself.

"I suppose it will be well to fix some day; eh, Crosbie?" said
Bernard.

"I will discuss that matt