tapping
her chin impatiently with the end of the pencil.

"Plenty more," rejoined Allan; "all in hieroglyphics. Look here:
'Marriage Acts, 4 Geo. IV., c. 76, and 6 and 7 Will. IV., c. 85 (_q_).'
Blackstone's intellect seems to be wandering here. Shall we take another
skip, and see if he picks himself up again on the next page?"

"Wait a little," said Neelie; "what's that I see in the middle?" She
read for a minute in silence, over Allan's shoulder, and suddenly
clasped her hands in despair. "I knew I was right!" she exclaimed. "Oh,
heavens, here it is!"

"Where?" asked Allan. "I see nothing about languishing in prison,
and cropping a fellow's hair close to his head, unless it's in the
hieroglyphics. Is '4 Geo. IV.' short for 'Lock him up'? and does 'c. 85
(_q_)' mean, 'Send for the hair-cutter'?"

"Pray be serious," remonstrated Neelie. "We are both sitting on a
volcano. There," she said pointing to the place. "Read it! If anything
can bring you to a proper sense of our situation, _that_ will."

Allan cleared his throat, and Neelie held the point of her pencil ready
on the depressing side of the account--otherwise the "Bad" page of the
pocket-book.

"'And as it is the policy of our law,'" Allan began, "'to prevent the
marriage of persons under the age of twenty-one, without the consent
of parents and guardians'"--(Neelie made her first entry on the side of
"Bad!" "I'm only seventeen next birthday, and circumstances forbid me
to confide my attachment to papa")--"'it is provided that in the case
of the publication of banns of a person under twenty-one, not being a
widower or widow, who are deemed emancipated'"--(Neelie made another
entry on the depressing side: "Allan is not a widower, and I am not a
widow; consequently, we are neither of us emancipated")--"'if the parent
or guardian openly signifies his dissent at the time the banns are
published'"--("which papa would be certain to do")--"'such publication
would be void.' I'll take breath here if you'll allow me," said Allan.
"Blackstone might put it in shorter sentences, I think, if he can't
put it in fewer words. Cheer up, Neelie! there must be other ways of
marrying, besides this roundabout way, that ends in a Publication and a
Void. Infernal gibberish! I could write better English myself."

"We are not at the end of it yet," said Neelie. "The Void is nothing to
what is to come."

"Whatever it is," rejoined Allan, "we'll treat it like a dose of
physic--we'll