of
virtue, or the want of it as a crime."

"Your wife ought to represent you. How can this country-girl help you
in the society to which you belong?"

"Society! What is society? In its elemental verity it means
toil, weariness, loss of rest and health, useless expense, envy,
disappointment, heart-burnings,--all for the sake of exchanging
entertainments with A and B, C and D. It means chaff instead of
wheat."

"If you want to be happy, Ulfar, put this girl out of your mind. I am
sure her brothers will oppose your suit. They will not let their
sister leave Allerdale. No Anneys has ever done so."

"You have strengthened my fancy, Elizabeth. There is a deal of
happiness in the idea of prevailing, of getting the mastery, of
putting hindrances out of the way."

"Well, I have given you good advice."

"There are many 'counsels of perfection' nobody dreams of following.
To advise a man in love not to love, is one of them."

"Love!" she cried scornfully. "Before you make such a fuss about the
Spanish Colonies and their new-found freedom, free yourself, Ulfar!
You have been a slave to some woman all your life. You are one of
those men who are naturally not their own property. A child can turn
you hither and thither; a simple country girl can lead you."

He laughed softly, and murmured,--

"There is a rose of a hundred leaves,
But the wild rose is the sweetest."

CHAPTER II.

FORGIVE ME, CHRIST!

The ultimatum reached by Fenwick in the consideration of any subject
was, to please himself. In the case of Aspatria Anneys he was
particularly determined to do so. It was in vain Lady Redware
entreated him to be rational. How could he be rational? It was the
preponderance of the emotional over the rational in his nature which
imparted so strong a personality to him. He grasped all circumstances
by feeling rather than by reason.

In a few days he was again at Seat-Ambar. Aspatria drew him, as the
candle draws the moth which has once burned its wings at it. And among
the simple Anneys folk he found a hearty welcome. With Squire William
he travelled the hills, and counted the flocks, and speculated on the
value of the iron-ore cropping out of the ground. With Brune he went
line-fishing, and in the wide barns tried his skill in wrestling or
pole-leaping or single-stick. He tolerated the rusticity of the life,
for the charming moments he found with Aspatria.

No one like Ulfar Fenwick had ever visited Ambar-Sid