ome hither," was the answer.

"But cannot we persuade thee, Orige?"

"Certes, nay!" replied she, with the obstinacy of feeble minds. "Truly,
I blame not Rachel, for she alway opposeth her to marriage, howso it
come. She stood out against Meg her trothing. But for you, Sir
Thomas,--I am verily astonied that you would deny Blanche such good
fortune."

"I would deny the maid nought that were for her good, Orige," said the
father, sadly.

"`Good,' in sweet sooth!--as though it should be ill for her to wear a
coronet on her head, and carry her pocket brimful of ducats! Where be
your eyes, Sir Thomas?"

"Thine be dazed, methinks, with the ducats and the coronet, Sister," put
in Rachel.

"Well, have your way," said Lady Enville, spreading out her hands, as if
she were letting Blanche's good fortune drop from them: "have your way!
You will have it, I count, as whatso I may say. I pray God the poor
child be not heart-broken. Howbeit, _I_ had better loved her than to do
thus."

Sir Thomas was silent, not because he did not feel the taunt, but
because he did feel it too bitterly to trust himself with speech. But
Rachel rose from her chair, deeply stung, and spoke very plain words
indeed.

"Orige Enville," she said, "thou art a born fool!"

"Gramercy, Rachel!" ejaculated her sister-in-law, as much moved out of
her graceful ease of manner as it lay in her torpid nature to be.

"You can deal with the maid betwixt you two," pursued the spinster. "I
will not bear a hand in the child's undoing."

And she marched out of the room, and slammed the door behind her.

"Good lack!" was Lady Enville's comment.

Without resuming the subject, Sir Thomas walked to the other door and
opened it.

"Blanche!" he said, in that hard, constrained tone which denotes not
want of feeling, but the endeavour to hide it.

"Blanche is in the garden, Father," said Margaret, coming out of the
hall. "Shall I seek her for you?"

"Ay, bid her come, my lass," said he quietly.

Margaret looked up inquiringly, in consequence of her father's unusual
tone; but he gave her no explanation, and she went to call Blanche.

That young lady was engaged at the moment in a deeply interesting
conversation with Don Juan upon the terrace. They had been exchanging
locks of hair, and vows of eternal fidelity. Margaret's approaching
step was heard just in time to resume an appearance of courteous
composure; and Don Juan, who was possessed of remarkabl