nswered
curtly--

"I am going to marry Sibylla Massingbird."

"The old name comes the readiest," said Jan. "How did it come about,
Lionel?"

"May I ask whence you derived your information, Jan?" returned Lionel,
who was marvelling where Jan could have heard this.

"At Deerham Court. I have been calling in, as I passed it, to see Miss
Lucy. The mother is going wild, I think. Lionel, if it is as she says,
that Sibylla drew you into it against your will, don't you carry it out.
_I_'d not. Nobody should hook me into anything."

"My mother said that, did she? Be so kind as not to repeat it, Jan. I
am marrying Sibylla because I love her; I am marrying her of my own free
will. If anybody--save my mother--has aught of objection to make to it,
let them make it to me."

"Oh! that's it, is it?" returned Jan. "You need not be up, Lionel, it is
no business of mine. I'm sure you are free to marry her for me. I'll be
groomsman, if you like."

"Lady Verner has always been prejudiced against Sibylla," observed
Lionel. "You might have remembered that, Jan."

"So I did," said Jan; "though I assumed that what she said was sure to
be true. You see, I have been on the wrong scent lately. I thought you
were getting fond of Lucy Tempest. It has looked like it."

Lionel murmured some unintelligible answer, and turned away, a hot flush
dyeing his brow.

Meanwhile Sibylla was already up, but not down. Breakfast she would have
carried up to her room, she told Mrs. Tynn. She stood at the window,
looking forth; not so much at the extensive prospect that swept the
horizon in the distance, as at the fair lands immediately around. "All
his," she murmured, "and I shall be his wife at last!"

She turned languidly round at the opening of the door, expecting to see
her breakfast. Instead of which, two frantic little bodies burst in and
seized upon her. Sibylla shrieked--

"Don't, Deb! don't, Amilly! Are you going to hug me to death?"

Their kisses of welcome over, they went round about her, fondly
surveying her from all points with their tearful eyes. She was thinner;
but she was more lovely. Amilly expressed an opinion that the bloom on
her delicate wax face was even brighter than of yore.

"Of course it is, at the present moment," answered Sibylla, "when you
have been kissing me into a fever."

"She is not tanned a bit with her voyage, that I see," cried Deborah,
with undisguised admiration. "But Sibylla's skin never did tan. Child,"