I shall believe you. I won't hear a word. Gentlemen
can do things that ladies cannot even speak about. Talk to my aunt
Molineux; our fate depends on her. This will teach you not to be so
wicked. What business have gentlemen to be so wicked? Ladies are not.
No, it is no use; I will not hear a syllable. I am ashamed to be seen
speaking to you. You are a bad character. Oh, Charles, is it true you
had a fit?"

"Yes."

"And have you been very ill? You look ill."

"I am better now, dearest."

"Dearest! Don't call me names. How dare you keep speaking to me when I
request you not?"

"But I can't excuse myself, and obtain my pardon, and recover your
love, unless I am allowed to speak."

"Oh, you can speak to my aunt Molineux, and she will read you a fine
lesson."

"Where is she?"

"Nobody knows. But there is her house, the one with the iron gate. Get
her ear first, if you really love me; and don't you ever waylay me
again. If you do, I shall say something rude to you, sir. Oh, I'm so
happy!"

Having let this out, she hid her face with her hands, and fled like the
very wind.

At dinner-time she was in high spirits.

The admiral congratulated her.

"Brava, Bell! Youth and health and a foreign air will soon cure you of
that folly."

Bella blushed deeply, and said nothing. The truth struggled within her,
too, but she shrank from giving pain, and receiving expostulation.

She kept the house, though, for two days, partly out of modesty, partly
out of an honest and pious desire to obey her father as much as she
could.

The third day Mrs. Molineux arrived, and sent over to the admiral.

He invited Bella to come with him. She consented eagerly, but was so
long in dressing that he threatened to go without her. She implored him
not to do that; and after a monstrous delay, the motive of which the
reader may perhaps divine, father and daughter called on Mrs. Molineux.
She received them very affectionately. But when the admiral, with some
hesitation, began to enter on the great subject, she said, quietly,
"Bella, my dear, go for a walk, and come back to me in half an hour."

"Aunt Molineux!" said Bella, extending both her hands imploringly to
that lady.

Mrs. Molineux was proof against this blandishment, and Bella had to go.

When she was gone, this lady, who both as wife and mother was literally
a model, rather astonished her brother the admiral. She said: "I am
sorry to tell you that you have conducted this matter