s a necessity for; I have been for the
last year coming here merely as a visitor, and I want to take possession
of you and have you all to myself. I suppose Mrs. Cunningham will be
coming in presently, and I will put the matter to her. If she says you
cannot be ready in a month I must give you another week, but I don't
think that she will say so. By the way, how about her?"

"I was thinking of that last night, Mark. It would be very lonely for
her to live by herself now, and you see she has always been as a mother
to me."

"Quite so, dear; and I am sure that I should have no objection to her
coming back to Crowswood, and living there as a friend, and helping you
in the housekeeping."

"Thank you very much, Mark; I should like that in every way. You see, I
know nothing whatever about housekeeping; and besides, when you are
out, it would be a great thing to have her with me, for it would be very
lonely by myself in that big house."

"Well, we will have her there, by all means, dear, if she likes to come;
you had better talk it over with her. Ah! here she is.

"We were just talking over the time it will take Millicent to get
ready," he said, "and I shall be glad of your opinion. I have been
telling her that I am going away for a fortnight, and have proposed that
the marriage should come off a fortnight later. I cannot see any use in
delay, and she does not either; at least, I suppose not, for the only
objection she has advanced is that there will be but a short time in
which to get her things ready. That strikes me as being all nonsense.
I could get things ready for ten weddings in that time. What do you
think?"

"I see no reason for delay," Mrs. Cunningham said; "and assuredly a
month ought to be sufficient to get everything made."

"Thank you, Mrs. Cunningham; then we can consider that settled,
Millicent!"

"I call this tyranny, Mrs. Cunningham," Millicent protested. "He says
he proposes that we shall be married in a month; it is not a proposal at
all, it is an order. If he had wanted me in such a hurry he might have
said so a year ago, and now that he has made up his mind at last, he
wants everything done in a hurry."

"It is the nature of men, my dear; they are all alike in that respect.
I think you had better make up your mind to it, especially as I have no
doubt in this case the order is not a very unpleasant one."

"You are too bad, Mrs. Cunningham," Millicent said. "I made sure that I
should find you o