d, taking the hand which had dropped down by her side.

"I had rather that the subject had never been started, but under the
circumstances, after what was said last night at dinner, I feel that the
sooner we come to a perfect understanding the better it will be," said
Cora, leading the way to a group of chairs and by a gesture inviting him
to be seated. Then, to prevent him further committing himself and
incurring a humiliating refusal, she herself took the initiative and
said:

"If any other person than Mr. Rockharrt had made the public announcement
that he did yesterday, I should have denounced the act as an
unpardonable outrage; but of him I must say that he must have labored
under some strange hallucination to have made such reckless assertions
without one shadow of foundation. You yourself must have known that
there was not one syllable of truth in his announcement."

"My dearest Mrs. Rothsay, I supposed that Mr. Rockharrt thought, even as
I hoped, that our betrothal was but the question of a few days, or even
of a few hours, and that he took the occasion of the family gathering to
announce the fact. He had already given his consent to my suit for the
blessing of your hand, and if he committed an indiscretion in that
premature announcement, I did not know it. I thought such announcement
might be a local custom, and I blessed him in my heart for observing it.
Cora!" he said, taking her hand and dropping his voice to a pleading
tone, "dear Cora, it was only premature."

"Duke of Cumbervale," she answered, coldly and gravely, withdrawing her
hand, "it is not premature. It was utterly false and groundless; it was
the declaration of an engagement that not only had never taken place,
but could never take place--an engagement forever impossible!"

"Oh, do not say that! I have kept my faith. After your grandfather's
rejection of me in your name I could rest nowhere in England. I went to
the Continent, and thence to the East; but still could rest nowhere,
because I was pursued by your image. When I came back to England, I
learned that you had been widowed from your wedding day and almost as
long as I had been absent. I determined to renew my suit, for I
remembered that it was not you, but your grandfather in your name, who
rejected my proposal. I remembered that you had once given me hope."

"You refer to a time of sad self-deception on my part, which led me even
to unconsciously deceiving you. My imaginary preference