en I first came in for this property; they are just
the men to consult. And if they decline to be mixed up in it, there's
their head clerk, who is one of the best fellows I ever met with in my
life. I asked him to go yachting with me, I remember; and, though he
couldn't go, he said he felt the obligation all the same. That's the man
to help us. Blackstone's a mere infant to him. Don't say it's absurd;
don't say it's exactly like _me_. Do pray hear me out. I won't breathe
your name or your father's. I'll describe you as 'a young lady to whom I
am devotedly attached.' And if my friend the clerk asks where you live,
I'll say the north of Scotland, or the west of Ireland, or the Channel
Islands, or anywhere else you like. My friend the clerk is a
total stranger to Thorpe Ambrose and everybody in it (which is one
recommendation); and in five minutes' time he'd put me up to what to
do (which is another). If you only knew him! He's one of those
extraordinary men who appear once or twice in a century--the sort of man
who won't allow you to make a mistake if you try. All I have got to say
to him (putting it short) is, 'My dear fellow, I want to be privately
married without perjury.' All he has got to say to me (putting it short)
is, 'You must do so-and-so and so-and-so, and you must be careful to
avoid this, that, and the other.' I have nothing in the world to do but
to follow his directions; and you have nothing in the world to do but
what the bride always does when the bridegroom is ready and willing!"
His arm stole round Neelie's waist, and his lips pointed the moral of
the last sentence with that inarticulate eloquence which is so uniformly
successful in persuading a woman against her will.

All Neelie's meditated objections dwindled, in spite of her, to
one feeble little question. "Suppose I allow you to go, Allan?" she
whispered, toying nervously with the stud in the bosom of his shirt.
"Shall you be very long away?"

"I'll be off to-day," said Allan, "by the eleven o'clock train. And I'll
be back to-morrow, if I and my friend the clerk can settle it all in
time. If not, by Wednesday at latest."

"You'll write to me every day?" pleaded Neelie, clinging a little closer
to him. "I shall sink under the suspense, if you don't promise to write
to me every day."

Allan promised to write twice a day, if she liked--letter-writing, which
was such an effort to other men, was no effort to _him_!

"And mind, whatever those people