ld she listen to me. If she speaks to me on the
subject I shall point out how the family will be advantaged, and leave
the matter to her. Further I will not go."

CHAPTER LII

Three days after her conversation with Lady Bellamy, Angela received
the following letter:--

"Isleworth Hall, Roxham, May 2.

"Dear Cousin Angela,

"My kind and devoted friend, Lady Bellamy, has told me that she has
spoken to you on a subject which is very near to my heart, and
that you have distinctly declined to have anything to do with it.
Of course I know that the matter lies entirely within your own
discretion, but I still venture to lay the following points before
you. There have, I am aware, been some painful passages between us
--passages which, under present circumstances, had much better be
forgotten. So, first, I ask you to put them quite out of your
mind, and to judge of what I have to propose from a very different
point of view.

"I write, Angela, to ask you to marry me it is true (since,
unfortunately, my health will not allow me to ask you in person),
but it is a very different offer from that which I made you in the
lane when you so bitterly refused me. Now I am solely anxious that
the marriage should take place in order that I may be enabled to
avoid the stringent provisions of your grandfather's will, which,
whilst forbidding me to leave these estates back to your father or
his issue, fortunately does not forbid a fictitious sale and the
settlement of the sum, or otherwise. But I will not trouble you
with these legal details.

"In short, I supplanted your father in youth, and I am now anxious
to make every reparation in my power, and at present I am quite
unable to make any. Independently of this, it pains me to think of
the estate passing away from the old stock, and I should like to
know that you, who have been the only woman whom I have felt true
affection for, will one day come into possession of it. Of course,
as you understand, the marriage would be _nothing but a form_, and
if, as I am told, you object to its being gone through with the
ceremonies of the Church, it could be made equally legal at a
registry office.

"But please understand, Angela, that I do not wish to press you: it
is for you to judge. Only you must judge quickly, for I am a fast-
dying man, and am anxious to get th