ak more plainly, Georgina, if I am to understand you."

"Are you married, Annesley?" said she, abruptly.

"Yes. I hope I am of an age to enter the holy estate without leave from
my relations."

"It is true, then?" said she, with a deep, full voice.

"Perfectly true. And then?" There was an open defiance in this tone of
questioning which seemed actually to sting her.

"And then?" repeated she, after him,--"'and then?' You are right to say,
'and then?'--if that means 'What next?'"

Beecher turned pale and red, as fear and passion swayed him alternately;
but he never spoke.

"Is it really a marriage?" broke she in again, "or is it some mockery
enacted by a degraded priest, and through the collusion of some scheming
sharpers. Oh, Annesley! tell me frankly how you have been tricked into
this ignominious contract!" And her accents, as she spoke this, assumed
a tone of imploring affection that actually moved him. To this a sense
of offended dignity quickly succeeded with him, and he said,--

"I cannot permit you to continue in this strain; I am rightfully,
legally married, and the lady who shares my lot is as much the
Viscountess Lackington as you are."

She covered her face with both her hands, and sat thus for several
minutes.

"Perhaps it is all for the best," muttered she, in a low but audible
accent,--"perhaps it is all for the best. Loss of rank, station, and
name will fall the more lightly on those who so little understood how to
maintain them with dignity."

"And if I am threatened with the loss of my title and fortune," cried
Beecher, passionately, "is it exactly the time to heap these insults on
me?"

Partly from the firmness of his manner as he uttered these words, partly
that they were not devoid of truthful meaning, she accepted the reproof
almost submissively.

"You must go over to England at once, Beecher," said she, calmly. "You
must place yourself immediately in Fordyce's hands, and secure the best
advice the Bar affords. I would go with you myself, but that--" The deep
flush that spread over Beecher's face as she paused here made the moment
one of intense pain to each. "No matter," resumed she; "there is only
one danger I would warn you against. You dropped the word 'compromise;'
now, Annesley, let nothing induce you to descend to this. Such a
suggestion could only have come from those whose habits of life accept
expediency in lieu of principle. Maintain your rights proudly and
defiantly so l