have tried expostulation, threats,
entreaties, locking her up; but it's useless. I shall kill the silly
fool if I persist, and I have at length consented to the marriage; for
I cannot see her die.' I began remonstrating upon the folly of
yielding consent to so ruinous a marriage, on account of a few tears
and hysterics, but Dutton stopped me peremptorily.

'It is useless talking,' he said. 'The die is cast; I have given my
word. You would hardly recognise her, she is so altered. I did not
know before,' added the strong, stern man, with trembling voice and
glistening eyes, 'that she was so inextricably twined about my
heart--my life!' It is difficult to estimate the bitterness of such a
disappointment to a proud, aspiring man like Dutton. I pitied him
sincerely, mistaken, if not blameworthy, as he had been.

'I have only myself to blame,' he presently resumed. 'A girl of
cultivated taste and mind could not have bestowed a second thought on
George Hamblin. But let's to business. I wish the marriage-settlement,
and my will, to be so drawn, that every farthing received from me
during my life, and after my death, shall be hers, and hers only; and
so strictly and entirely secured, that she shall be without power to
yield control over the slightest portion of it, should she be so
minded.' I took down his instructions, and the necessary deeds were
drawn in accordance with them. When the day for signing arrived, the
bridegroom-elect demurred at first to the stringency of the provisions
of the marriage-contract; but as upon this point Mr Dutton was found
to be inflexible, the handsome, illiterate clown--he was little
better--gave up his scruples, the more readily as a life of assured
idleness lay before him, from the virtual control he was sure to have
over his wife's income. These were the thoughts which passed across
his mind, I was quite sure, as taking the pen awkwardly in his hand,
he affixed _his mark_ to the marriage-deed. I reddened with shame, and
the smothered groan which at the moment smote faintly on my ear, again
brokenly confessed the miserable folly of the father in not having
placed his beautiful child beyond all possibility of mental contact or
communion with such a person. The marriage was shortly afterwards
solemnised, but I did not wait to witness the ceremony.

The husband's promised good-behaviour did not long endure; ere two
months of wedded life were past, he had fallen again into his old
habits; and th