Emily. In the present emergency, he decided on
returning to the subject, and on hastening the meeting between the two
women which he had first suggested at Mr. Wyvil's country seat.

No time was to be lost in carrying out this intention. He wrote to Mrs.
Delvin by that day's post; confiding to her, in the first place, the
critical position in which he now found himself. This done, he proceeded
as follows:

"To your sound judgment, dearest Agatha, it may appear that I am making
myself needlessly uneasy about the future. Two persons only know that I
am the man who escaped from the inn at Zeeland. You are one of them, and
Miss Jethro is the other. On you I can absolutely rely; and, after my
experience of her, I ought to feel sure of Miss Jethro. I admit this;
but I cannot get over my distrust of Emily's friends. I fear the cunning
old doctor; I doubt Mr. Wyvil; I hate Alban Morris.

"Do me a favor, my dear. Invite Emily to be your guest, and so separate
her from these friends. The old servant who attends on her will be
included in the invitation, of course. Mrs. Ellmother is, as I believe,
devoted to the interests of Mr. Alban Morris: she will be well out
of the way of doing mischief, while we have her safe in your northern
solitude.

"There is no fear that Emily will refuse your invitation.

"In the first place, she is already interested in you. In the second
place, I shall consider the small proprieties of social life; and,
instead of traveling with her to your house, I shall follow by a later
train. In the third place, I am now the chosen adviser in whom she
trusts; and what I tell her to do, she will do. It pains me, really
and truly pains me, to be compelled to deceive her--but the other
alternative is to reveal myself as the wretch of whom she is in search.
Was there ever such a situation? And, oh, Agatha, I am so fond of her!
If I fail to persuade her to be my wife, I don't care what becomes
of me. I used to think disgrace, and death on the scaffold, the most
frightful prospect that a man can contemplate. In my present frame of
mind, a life without Emily may just as well end in that way as in any
other. When we are together in your old sea-beaten tower, do your best,
my dear, to incline the heart of this sweet girl toward me. If she
remains in London, how do I know that Mr. Morris may not recover the
place he has lost in her good opinion? The bare idea of it turns me
cold.

"There is one more point on which