conditions are, that for the next six months to come all
communication is to be broken off, both personally and by writing,
between Armadale and Miss Milroy. That space of time is to be occupied
by the young gentleman as he himself thinks best, and by the young lady
in completing her education at school. If, when the six months have
passed, they are both still of the same mind, and if Armadale's conduct
in the interval has been such as to improve the major's opinion of him,
he will be allowed to present himself in the character of Miss Milroy's
suitor, and, in six months more, if all goes well, the marriage may take
place.

"I declare I could kiss the dear old major, if I was only within reach
of him! If I had been at his elbow, and had dictated the conditions
myself, I could have asked for nothing better than this. Six months
of total separation between Armadale and Miss Milroy! In half that
time--with all communication cut off between the two--it must go
hard with me, indeed, if I don't find myself dressed in the necessary
mourning, and publicly recognized as Armadale's widow.

"But I am forgetting the girl's letter. She gives her father's reasons
for making his conditions, in her father's own words. The major seems
to have spoken so sensibly and so feelingly that he left his daughter no
decent alternative--and he leaves Armadale no decent alternative--but to
submit. As well as I can remember, he seems to have expressed himself to
Miss Neelie in these, or nearly in these terms:

"'Don't think I am behaving cruelly to you, my dear: I am merely asking
you to put Mr. Armadale to the proof. It is not only right, it is
absolutely necessary, that you should hold no communication with him for
some time to come; and I will show you why. In the first place, if you
go to school, the necessary rules in such places--necessary for the
sake of the other girls--would not permit you to see Mr. Armadale or to
receive letters from him; and, if you are to become mistress of Thorpe
Ambrose, to school you must go, for you would be ashamed, and I should
be ashamed, if you occupied the position of a lady of station without
having the accomplishments which all ladies of station are expected to
possess. In the second place, I want to see whether Mr. Armadale will
continue to think of you as he thinks now, without being encouraged in
his attachment by seeing you, or reminded of it by hearing from you. If
I am wrong in thinking him flighty a