rn!"

Immediately on leaving Sir Patrick, Geoffrey was encountered by one of
the servants in search of him.

"I beg your pardon, Sir," began the man. "The groom from the Honorable
Mr. Delamayn's--"

"Yes? The fellow who brought me a note from my brother this morning?"

"He's expected back, Sir--he's afraid he mustn't wait any longer."

"Come here, and I'll give you the answer for him."

He led the way to the writing-table, and referred to Julius's letter
again. He ran his eye carelessly over it, until he reached the final
lines: "Come to-morrow, and help us to receive Mrs. Glenarm." For a
while he paused, with his eye fixed on that sentence; and with the
happiness of three people--of Anne, who had loved him; of Arnold, who
had served him; of Blanche, guiltless of injuring him--resting on the
decision that guided his movements for the next day. After what had
passed that morning between Arnold and Blanche, if he remained at Lady
Lundie's, he had no alternative but to perform his promise to Anne. If
he returned to his brother's house, he had no alternative but to desert
Anne, on the infamous pretext that she was Arnold's wife.

He suddenly tossed the letter away from him on the table, and snatched
a sheet of note-paper out of the writing-case. "Here goes for Mrs.
Glenarm!" he said to himself; and wrote back to his brother, in
one line: "Dear Julius, Expect me to-morrow. G. D." The impassible
man-servant stood by while he wrote, looking at his magnificent breadth
of chest, and thinking what a glorious "staying-power" was there for the
last terrible mile of the coming race.

"There you are!" he said, and handed his note to the man.

"All right, Geoffrey?" asked a friendly voice behind him.

He turned--and saw Arnold, anxious for news of the consultation with Sir
Patrick.

"Yes," he said. "All right."

------------ NOTE.--There are certain readers who feel a
disposition to doubt Facts, when they meet with them in a work of
fiction. Persons of this way of thinking may be profitably
referred to the book which first suggested to me the idea of
writing the present Novel. The book is the Report of the Royal
Commissioners on The Laws of Marriage. Published by the Queen's
Printers For her Majesty's Stationery Office. (London, 1868.)
What Sir Patrick says professionally of Scotch Marriages in this
chapter is taken from this high authority. What the lawyer (in
the Prolo