ell even you. Decima would have
imparted it to you years ago, when I went away, but for one thing."

"What may that have been?" asked Lady Verner.

"Because we feared, she and I, that your pride would be so wounded, and
not unjustly, at my father's unreasonable opposition; that you might, in
retaliation, forbid the alliance, then and always. You see I am candid,
Lady Verner. I can afford to be so, can I not?"

"Decima ought to have told me," was all the reply given by Lady Verner.

"And Decima would have told you, at all hazards, but for my urgent
entreaties. The blame is wholly mine, Lady Verner. You must forgive me."

"In what lay the objection of Sir Rufus?" she asked.

"I honestly believe that it arose entirely from that dogged
self-will--may I be forgiven for speaking thus irreverently of my dead
father!--which was his great characteristic through life. It was I who
chose Decima, not he; and therefore my father opposed it. To Decima and
to Decima's family he could not have any possible objection--in fact, he
had not. But he liked to oppose his will to mine. I--if I know anything
of myself--am the very reverse of self-willed, and I had always yielded
to him. No question, until this, had ever arisen that was of vital
importance to my life and its happiness."

"Sir Rufus may have resented her want of fortune," remarked Lady Verner.

"I think not. He was not a covetous or a selfish man; and our revenues
are such that I can make ample settlements on my wife. No, it was the
self-will. But it is all over, and I can openly claim her. You will give
her to me, Lady Verner?"

"I suppose I must," was the reply of my lady. "But people have been
calling her an old maid."

Sir Edmund laughed. "How they will be disappointed! Some of their eyes
may be opened to-night. I shall not deem it necessary to make a secret
of our engagement now."

"You must permit me to ask one question, Sir Edmund. Have you and Decima
corresponded?"

"No. We separated for the time entirely. The engagement existing in our
own hearts alone."

"I am glad to hear it. I did _not_ think Decima would have carried on a
correspondence unknown to me."

"I am certain that she would not. And for that reason I never asked her
to do so. Until I met Decima to-night, Lady Verner, we have had no
communication with each other since I left. But I am quite sure that
neither of us has doubted the other for a single moment."

"It has been a long while to wait,