as speaking of one and the same person in one
and the same breath. Now he submissively acknowledged that Major Milroy
had his rights as a father, and now he reviled the major as having no
feeling for anything but his mechanics and his clock. At one moment he
started up, with the tears in his eyes, and declared that his 'darling
Neelie' was an angel on earth. At another he sat down sulkily, and
thought that a girl of her spirit might have run away on the spot and
joined him in London. After a good half-hour of this absurd exhibition,
I succeeded in quieting him; and then a few words of tender inquiry
produced what I had expressly come to the hotel to see--Miss Milroy's
letter.

"It was outrageously long, and rambling, and confused; in short, the
letter of a fool. I had to wade through plenty of vulgar sentiment and
lamentation, and to lose time and patience over maudlin outbursts of
affection, and nauseous kisses inclosed in circles of ink. However, I
contrived to extract the information I wanted at last; and here it is:

"The major, on receipt of my anonymous warning, appears to have sent at
once for his daughter, and to have shown her the letter. 'You know what
a hard life I lead with your mother; don't make it harder still, Neelie,
by deceiving me.' That was all the poor old gentleman said. I always did
like the major; and, though he was afraid to show it, I know he always
liked me. His appeal to his daughter (if _her_ account of it is to be
believed) cut her to the heart. She burst out crying (let her alone for
crying at the right moment!) and confessed everything.

"After giving her time to recover herself (if he had given her a good
box on the ears it would have been more to the purpose!), the major
seems to have put certain questions, and to have become convinced (as I
was convinced myself) that his daughter's heart, or fancy, or whatever
she calls it, was really and truly set on Armadale. The discovery
evidently distressed as well as surprised him. He appears to have
hesitated, and to have maintained his own unfavorable opinion of Miss
Neelie's lover for some little time. But his daughter's tears and
entreaties (so like the weakness of the dear old gentleman!) shook him
at last. Though he firmly refused to allow of any marriage engagement at
present, he consented to overlook the clandestine meetings in the park,
and to put Armadale's fitness to become his son-in-law to the test, on
certain conditions.

"These