lities of betrothal had been observed, then, mistress,
what do you do?" severely demanded old Aaron Rockharrt.

"Only my duty under the circumstances. I was not in the least bound or
compromised by or responsible for anything that was said or done at that
dinner table," replied Corona.

"This is what you do: You dare to set me at defiance! You dare to set
your will against mine! You dare to reject the man whom I chose for your
husband, whom I announced as your betrothed husband! You dare to drive
him away from my house, grieved, disappointed, humiliated, to become a
wanderer over the face of the earth for your sake, even as you drove
Regulas Rothsay from the goal of his ambition into exile, and--"

A sharp cry from Corona suddenly stopped him in full career.

"Do not, oh! do not speak of that! I--I would have given my life to have
prevented Rule's loss, if I could! As for this man--this duke--he is
nothing whatever to me, and never can be!"

"And yet you were ready to fall down and worship him three years ago!"

"It was a brief insanity--a self-delusion. That is past. Cumbervale
never was and never can be anything to me. No man can ever be anything
to me! I could not live Rule's wife, but I will die Rule's widow; and I
do not care how soon--the sooner the better, if it were the Lord's
will!" moaned Corona.

"Drivel!" angrily exclaimed old Aaron Rockharrt. "I am tired of your
idiotic, imbecile hypocrisies! Here are two men driven away by your
unprincipled vacillation--to call your conduct by the lightest name. One
driven to his death; one driven, it may be, to his ruin. It is quite
time you were sent to follow your victims. Look you! I am just about to
start for North End. I shall return home at my usual time this evening.
Do not let me find you here when I arrive, for I never wish to see your
false face again!" said the Iron King, rising from his arm chair and
striding from the room.

Corona started up and ran after him, pleading, imploring--

"Grandfather! Dear grandfather! Oh, I beg pardon! I forgot! Sir! sir!
Oh, do not part from me in this way!"

He turned sharply, stared at her mockingly, and then demanded:

"Come! Shall I call Cumbervale back? Tell him that you have changed your
whirligig mind, and are ready to marry him, if he will only take time by
the forelock and return before you shift around again? I can easily do
that. I can send a telegram that will over-take him and turn him back so
promptly t