in alone. 'Why must I not
issue orders in my own house? Who is this young criminal, that you
value his interests higher than my honour? I have delayed for one
moment sending my messenger to the chief constable to hear your
explanation--only for that.'

'You will still persevere?'

'Certainly. Who is he?'

'Paula... he is my son.'

She remained still as death while one might count ten; then turned her
back upon him. 'I think you had better go away,' she whispered. 'You
need not come again.'

He did not move. 'Paula--do you indeed mean this?' he asked.

'I do.'

De Stancy walked a few paces, then said in a low voice: 'Miss Power,
I knew--I guessed just now, as soon as it began--that we were going to
split on this rock. Well--let it be--it cannot be helped; destiny is
supreme. The boy was to be my ruin; he is my ruin, and rightly. But
before I go grant me one request. Do not prosecute him. Believe me, I
will do everything I can to get him out of your way. He shall annoy you
no more.... Do you promise?'

'I do,' she said. 'Now please leave me.'

'Once more--am I to understand that no marriage is to take place to-day
between you and me?'

'You are.'

Sir William De Stancy left the room. It was noticeable throughout the
interview that his manner had not been the manner of a man altogether
taken by surprise. During the few preceding days his mood had been that
of the gambler seasoned in ill-luck, who adopts pessimist surmises as a
safe background to his most sanguine hopes.

She remained alone for some time. Then she rang, and requested that
Mr. Wardlaw, her father's solicitor and friend, would come up to her. A
messenger was despatched, not to Mr. Cunningham Haze, but to the parson
of the parish, who in his turn sent to the clerk and clerk's wife,
then busy in the church. On receipt of the intelligence the two latter
functionaries proceeded to roll up the carpet which had been laid from
the door to the gate, put away the kneeling-cushions, locked the doors,
and went off to inquire the reason of so strange a countermand. It was
soon proclaimed in Markton that the marriage had been postponed for a
fortnight in consequence of the bride's sudden indisposition: and less
public emotion was felt than the case might have drawn forth, from the
ignorance of the majority of the populace that a wedding had been going
to take place at all.

Meanwhile Miss De Stancy had been closeted with Paula for more than an
hour. It