ady Aylmer, and
she knew that trouble would come of this visit.

I fear that many ladies will condemn Miss Amedroz when I tell them
that she showed this letter to her cousin Will. It does not promise
well for any of the parties concerned when a young woman with two
lovers can bring herself to show the love-letters of him to whom
she is engaged to the other lover whom she has refused! But I have
two excuses to put forward in Clara's defence. In the first place,
Captain Aylmer's love-letters were not in truth love-letters, but
were letters of business; and in the next place, Clara was teaching
herself to regard Will Belton as her brother, and to forget that he
had ever assumed the part of a lover.

She was so teaching herself, but I cannot say that the lesson was
one easily learned; nor had the outrage upon her of which Will had
been guilty, and which was described in the last chapter, made the
teaching easier. But she had determined, nevertheless, that it should
be so. When she thought of Will her heart would become very soft
towards him; and sometimes, when she thought of Captain Aylmer, her
heart would become anything but soft towards him. Unloving feelings
would be very strong within her bosom as she re-read his letters, and
remembered that he had not come to her, but had sent her seventy-five
pounds to comfort her in her trouble! Nevertheless, he was to be
her husband, and she would do her duty. What might have happened
had Will Belton come to Belton Castle before she had known Frederic
Aylmer,--of that she stoutly resolved that she would never think at
all; and consequently the thought was always intruding upon her.

"You will sleep one night in town, of course?" said Will.

"I suppose so. You know all about it. I shall do as I'm told."

"You can't go down to Yorkshire from here in one day. Where would you
like to stay in London?"

"How on earth should I know? Ladies do sleep at hotels in London
sometimes, I suppose?"

"Oh yes. I can write and have rooms ready for you."

"Then that difficulty is over," said Clara.

But in Belton's estimation the difficulty was not exactly over.
Captain Aylmer would, of course, be in London that night, and it was
a question with Will whether or no Clara was not bound in honour
to tell the--accursed beast, I am afraid Mr. Belton called him in
his soliloquies--where she would lodge on the occasion. Or would
it suffice that he, Will, should hand her over to the enemy at the