your guardian, and in that
capacity, at any rate, you must submit to him." Clara, therefore,
consented to remain at Belton; but, before Will arrived, she returned
from the house to the cottage.

"Of course I understand all about it," said Mrs. Askerton; "and let
me tell you this,--that if it is not all settled within a week from
his coming here, I shall think that you are without a heart. He is
to be knocked about, and cuffed, and kept from his work, and made to
run up and down between here and Norfolk, because you cannot bring
yourself to confess that you have been a fool."

"I have never said that I have not been a fool," said Clara.

"You have made a mistake,--as young women will do sometimes, even
when they are as prudent and circumspect as you are,--and now you
don't quite like the task of putting it right."

It was all true, and Clara knew that it was true. The putting right
of mistakes is never pleasant; and in this case it was so unpleasant
that she could not bring herself to acknowledge that it must be done.
And yet, I think, that by this time she was aware of the necessity.

CHAPTER XXXI.

TAKING POSSESSION.

"I want her to have it all," said William Belton to Mr. Green, the
lawyer, when they came to discuss the necessary arrangements for the
property.

"But that would be absurd."

"Never mind. It is what I wish. I suppose a man may do what he likes
with his own."

"She won't take it," said the lawyer.

"She must take it, if you manage the matter properly," said Will.

"I don't suppose it will make much difference," said the
lawyer,--"now that Captain Aylmer is out of the running."

"I know nothing about that. Of course I am very glad that he should
be out of the running, as you call it. He is a bad sort of fellow,
and I didn't want him to have the property. But all that has had
nothing to do with it. I'm not doing it because I think she is ever
to be my wife."

From this the reader will understand that Belton was still fidgeting
himself and the lawyer about the estate when he passed through
London. The matter in dispute, however, was so important that he
was induced to seek the advice of others besides Mr. Green, and at
last was brought to the conclusion that it was his paramount duty
to become Belton of Belton. There seemed in the minds of all these
councillors to be some imperative and almost imperious requirement
that the acres should go back to a man of his name. Now, as there