body--if--if--I--I--if--I--if--you
know--that is--I'm sure--"

"Nonsense!" said Mrs. Willoughby, as Minnie broke down in confusion.
"It is _too_ absurd. I won't talk about it. You are a silly child. Oh,
how I _do_ wish you were home!"

At this juncture the conversation was interrupted by the Baron.

"It is not my fashion, ma'am," said he, gravely, "to remind another of
any obligation under which he may be to me; but my claims on Minnie
have been so opposed by you and the rest of her friends that I have to
ask you to think of them. Your father knows what my first claims are.
You yourself, ma'am, know perfectly well what the last claims are
which I have won to-day."

The Baron spoke calmly, firmly, and with dignity. Mrs. Willoughby
answered not a word.

"If you think on your position last night, and Minnie's, ma'am,"
resumed the Baron, "you'll acknowledge, I expect, that it was pretty
hard lines. What would you have given a few hours ago for a sight of
my uniform in that old house yonder? If I had come then to save Minnie
from the clutches of that _I_talian, wouldn't you have given her to me
with all your heart, and your prayers too? You would, by thunder!
Think, ma'am, on your sufferings last night, and then answer me."

Mrs. Willoughby involuntarily thought of that night of horror, and
shuddered, and said nothing.

"Now, ma'am, just listen to this. I find on coming here that this
Italian had a priest here all ready to marry him and Minnie. If I'd
been delayed or defeated, Minnie would have been that rascal's wife by
this time. The priest was here. They would have been married as sure
as you're born. You, ma'am, would have had to see this poor,
trembling, broken-hearted, despairing girl torn from your arms, and
bound by the marriage tie to a ruffian and a scoundrel whom she
loathed. And now, ma'am, I save her from this. I have my priest too,
ma'am. He ain't a Roman Catholic, it is true--he's an orthodox
parson--but, at the same time, I ain't particular. Now I propose to
avail myself this day of his invaluable services at the earliest hour
possible; but, at the same time, if Min prefers it, I don't object to
the priest, for I have a kind of Roman Catholic leaning myself.

"Now you may ask, ma'am," continued the Baron, as Mrs. Willoughby
continued silent--"you may ask why I'm in such a thundering hurry. My
answer is, because you fit me off so. You tried to keep me from Min.
You locked me out of your house. You th