e hardship of my own position," he
said; "I owe it to you to speak without reference to the future that
may be in store for me. No man can be worthy of the sacrifice which your
generous forgetfulness of yourself is willing to make. I respect you; I
admire you; I thank you with my whole heart. Leave me to my fate, Mrs.
Callender--and let me go."

He rose. She stopped him by a gesture.

"A _young_ woman," she answered, "would shrink from saying--what I, as
an old woman, mean to say now. I refuse to leave you to your fate. I
ask you to prove that you respect me, admire me, and thank me with your
whole heart. Take one day to think--and let me hear the result. You
promise me this?"

He promised. "Now go," she said.

VII.

NEXT morning Ernest received a letter from Mrs. Callender. She wrote to
him as follows:

"There are some considerations which I ought to have mentioned yesterday
evening, before you left my house.

"I ought to have reminded you--if you consent to reconsider your
decision--that the circumstances do not require you to pledge yourself
to me absolutely.

"At my age, I can with perfect propriety assure you that I regard our
marriage simply and solely as a formality which we must fulfill, if I am
to carry out my intention of standing between you and ruin.

"Therefore--if the missing ship appears in time, the only reason for the
marriage is at an end. We shall be as good friends as ever; without the
encumbrance of a formal tie to bind us.

"In the other event, I should ask you to submit to certain restrictions
which, remembering my position, you will understand and excuse.

"We are to live together, it is unnecessary to say, as mother and son.
The marriage ceremony is to be strictly private; and you are so to
arrange your affairs that, immediately afterward, we leave England for
any foreign place which you prefer. Some of my friends, and (perhaps)
some of your friends, will certainly misinterpret our motives--if we
stay in our own country--in a manner which would be unendurable to a
woman like me.

"As to our future lives, I have the most perfect confidence in you, and
I should leave you in the same position of independence which you occupy
now. When you wish for my company you will always be welcome. At other
times, you are your own master. I live on my side of the house, and you
live on yours--and I am to be allowed my hours of solitude every day, in
the pursuit of musical occupations, which ha