all that you
say. But I shall never live at Greenwood!"

"It was your father's dearest wish," said the Major. "It is
ours--Richard's and mine. We are not men who give up easily. God forbid,
child, that I should hint to you, who are the darling of us all, of
obligation--and yet I put it to you if obedience is not owed--"

"Yes, yes," answered Jacqueline. "It is owed. I am not ungrateful--I am
mad--perhaps I am wicked! I wish that I were dead!"

"The Churchills," said Uncle Edward, "have never in their marriages set
vulgar store by money. Blood we ask, of course, and honourable position,
and the right way of thinking. Individually I am a stickler for mind. To
his wealth and to his name and his great personal advantages Ludwell
Cary adds intellect. He may become a power in his country and his time.
You would so aid him, child! I am called a woman-hater, but once,
Jacqueline, I loved too well. For all that I am a sorry old bachelor, I
know whereof I speak. With a man, a woman to fight for is not half the
battle--it is all the battle."

"He is all that you say," answered Jacqueline. "But I do not love him."

"You like him. You admire him."

"Yes, yes. That is not love."

"It is mighty near kin," said Uncle Dick. "No end of happy folk begin
with esteem and go on like turtle doves. My little Jack, you shall have
the prettiest wedding gown! It's all a mistake and a misunderstanding,
and the good Lord knows there's too much of both in this old world!
You'll think better of it all, and you'll find that you didn't know your
own mind,--and there'll be a smile for poor Cary when he comes riding
back to-night?"

"No, no," cried Jacqueline. "There is no mistake and no
misunderstanding. Love cannot be forced, and I'll not marry where I do
not love!"

"You don't," said Colonel Churchill slowly, "you don't by any chance
love some one else? What does that colour mean, Jacqueline? Don't
stammer! Speak out!"

But Jacqueline, standing by the old leather chair, bowed her head upon
its high green back, and neither could nor would "speak out." The two
men, grey and withered, obstinate and imperious in a day and generation
that subordinated youth to the councils of the old, gazed at their niece
with perplexity and anger. With the simpler of the two the perplexity
was the greater, with the other anger. A fear was knocking at Major
Churchill's heart. He would not admit it, strove not to listen to it, or
to listen with contemptuous inc