, you there, then," said the lady, "that comes of the dear man's heat
of temper. I would have kept him till the storm was over but he was far
too much displeased with his poor cousin to listen to me. Come, cousin
Betty, I know you are in all his counsels. You will bring him to hear
reason."

"The whole affair must wait, madam, till he is able to move."

"And if this illness be the consequence of one wet ride, how can he be
in a condition to take the journey?"

"You best know, madam whether a father can be expected to bestow his
daughter in so strange a manner without direct communication either with
her or with the other party."

"I grant you the idea is at first sight startling, but surely he might
trust to me; and he knows Amyas Belamour, poor man, to be the very soul
of honour; yes, and with all his eccentricity to have made no small
impression on our fair Aurelia. Depend upon it, my dear Betty, romance
carried the day; and the damsel is more enamoured of the mysterious
voice in the dark, than she would be of any lusty swain in the ordinary
light of day."

"All that may be, madam, but she is scarce yet sixteen, and it is
our duty to be assured of her inclinations and of the gentleman's
condition."

"You will not trust me, who have watched them both," said Lady Belamour,
with her most engaging manner. "Now look here, my dear, since we are two
women together, safe out of the hearing of the men, I will be round with
you. I freely own myself imprudent in sending your sister to Bowstead
to take charge of my poor little girls, but if you had seen the little
savages they were, you would not wonder that I could not take them home
at once, nor that I should wish to see them acquire the good manners
that I remembered in the children of this house; I never dreamt of Mr.
Belamour heeding the little nursery. He has always been an obstinate
melancholic lunatic, confined to his chamber by day, and wandering like
a ghost by night, refusing all admission. Moreover my good Aylward
had appeared hitherto a paragon of a duenna for discretion, only over
starched in her precision. Little did I expect to find my young lady
spending all her evenings alone with him, and the solitary hermit
transformed into a gay and gallant bachelor like the Friar of Orders
Gray in the song. And since matters have gone to such a length, I, as a
woman who has seen more of the world than you have, my dear good Betty,
think it expedient that the Friar and