turmoil. She went on further, and called to Charlotte, who
was now regularly sleeping in the castle, to accompany her, and together
they ascended to the telegraph-room in the donjon tower.

'Whom are you going to telegraph to?' said Miss De Stancy when they
stood by the instrument.

'My architect.'

'O--Mr. Havill.'

'Mr. Somerset.'

Miss De Stancy had schooled her emotions on that side cruelly well, and
she asked calmly, 'What, have you chosen him after all?'

'There is no choice in it--read that,' said Paula, handing Havill's
letter, as if she felt that Providence had stepped in to shape ends that
she was too undecided or unpractised to shape for herself.

'It is very strange,' murmured Charlotte; while Paula applied herself to
the machine and despatched the words:--

'Miss Power, Stancy Castle, to G. Somerset, Esq., F.S.A., F.R.I.B.A.,
Queen Anne's Chambers, St. James's.

'Your design is accepted in its entirety. It will be necessary to begin
soon. I shall wish to see and consult you on the matter about the 10th
instant.'

When the message was fairly gone out of the window Paula seemed still
further to expand. The strange spell cast over her by something or
other--probably the presence of De Stancy, and the weird romanticism of
his manner towards her, which was as if the historic past had touched
her with a yet living hand--in a great measure became dissipated,
leaving her the arch and serene maiden that she had been before.

About this time Captain De Stancy and his Achates were approaching the
castle, and had arrived about fifty paces from the spot at which it
was Dare's custom to drop behind his companion, in order that their
appearance at the lodge should be that of master and man.

Dare was saying, as he had said before: 'I can't help fancying, captain,
that your approach to this castle and its mistress is by a very tedious
system. Your trenches, zigzags, counterscarps, and ravelins may be all
very well, and a very sure system of attack in the long run; but upon my
soul they are almost as slow in maturing as those of Uncle Toby himself.
For my part I should be inclined to try an assault.'

'Don't pretend to give advice, Willy, on matters beyond your years.'

'I only meant it for your good, and your proper advancement in the
world,' said Dare in wounded tones.

'Different characters, different systems,' returned the soldier. 'This
lady is of a reticent, independent, complicated disposition,