; the case against us--the facts as we knew
them. Then I added, slowly, 'This is Mr. Harold Tillington, whom they
accuse of forgery. Does he look like a forger? I want to marry him
before he is tried. It is the only way by which I can prove my implicit
trust in him. As soon as we are married, he will give himself up at once
to the police--if you wish it, before your eyes. But married we must be.
_Can't_ you manage it somehow?'

My pleading voice touched him. 'Harold Tillington?' he murmured. 'I know
of his forebears. Lady Guinevere Tillington's son, is it not? Then you
must be Younger of Gledcliffe.' For Scotland is a village: everyone in
it seems to have heard of every other.'

'What does he mean?' I asked. 'Younger of Gledcliffe?' I remembered now
that the phrase had occurred in Mr. Ashurst's will, though I never
understood it.

'A Scotch fashion,' Harold answered. 'The heir to a laird is called
Younger of so-and-so. My father has a small estate of that name in
Dumfriesshire; a _very_ small estate: I was born and brought up there.'

'Then you are a Scotchman?' the minister asked.

'Yes,' Harold answered frankly: 'by remote descent. We are trebly of the
female line at Gledcliffe; still, I am no doubt more or less Scotch by
domicile.'

'Younger of Gledcliffe! Oh, yes, that ought certainly to be quite
sufficient for our purpose. Do you live there?'

'I have been living there lately. I always live there when I'm in
Britain. It is my only home. I belong to the diplomatic service.'

'But then--the lady?'

'She is unmitigatedly English,' Harold admitted, in a gloomy voice.

'Not quite,' I answered. 'I lived four years in Edinburgh. And I spent
my holidays there while I was at Girton. I keep my boxes still at my old
rooms in Maitland Street.'

'Oh, that will do,' the minister answered, quite relieved; for it was
clear that our anxiety and the touch of romance in our tale had enlisted
him in our favour. 'Indeed, now I come to think of it, it suffices for
the Act if one only of the parties is domiciled in Scotland. And as Mr.
Tillington lives habitually at Gledcliffe, that settles the question.
Still, I can do nothing save marry you now by religious service in the
presence of my servants--which constitutes what we call an
ecclesiastical marriage--it becomes legal if afterwards registered; and
then you must apply to the sheriff for a warrant to register it. But I
will do what I can; later on, if you like, you can be