ent in my mind. I did not choose to
confess to myself how much I liked him; but the more I reflected on
Mr. Haycock's proposal the more I felt how impossible it would be
never to _think_ of Frank any more.

"No!" I said inwardly, with my hand on the drawing-room door, "I will
_not_ give him up. I have his note even now in my bosom; _he_ cares
for _me_, at any rate. I am happier to-day than I have been for
months, and I will _not_ go and destroy it all with my own hand." I
opened the door, and found myself in the formidable presence of Aunt
Horsingham.

Her ladyship looked colder and more reserved, if possible, than ever.
She motioned me stiffly to take a chair, and plunged at once into the
subject in her dry, measured tones.

"Before I congratulate you, Kate," she began, "on such an unlooked-for
piece of good fortune as has just come to my knowledge, I am bound to
confess, much to my astonishment----"

"Thank you, aunt," I put in; "that's complimentary, at any rate."

"I should wish to say a few words," proceeded my aunt, without heeding
the interruption, "on the duties which will now devolve upon you, and
the line of conduct which I should advise you to pursue in your new
sphere. These hoydenish manners, these ridiculous expeditions, these
scampers all over the country, must be renounced forthwith. Unbecoming
as they are in a young unmarried female, a much stricter sense of
decorum, a vastly different repose and reserve of manner, are
absolutely essential in a wife; and it is as a _wife_, Kate, that I am
now addressing you."

"A wife, aunt!" I exclaimed; "whose, I should like to know?"

"This is an ill-chosen time for jesting, Kate," said my aunt with a
frown. "I cannot congratulate you on your good taste in turning so
important a subject into ridicule. Mr. Haycock has proposed to you;
you have accepted him. Whilst poor Deborah is so ill I am your natural
guardian, and he has with great propriety requested my consent;
although, in the agitation very natural to a man so circumstanced,"
added my aunt, smothering a smile, "it was with some difficulty that I
made out exactly what he meant."

"He _never_ proposed to me; I _never_ accepted him," I broke in,
breathless with agitation. "I never _will_ be his wife, aunt; you had
no right to tell him so. Write to him immediately--send a man off on
horseback to overtake him. I'll put my bonnet on this instant, and
walk every mile of the way myself. He's a true-hearted g