I'll turn over a new leaf, Sir Boreas."

"I don't believe it for a moment. They tell me you're just going to
be married." Crocker was silent. Could he be expected to cut the
ground from under his own feet at such a moment? "For the young
lady's sake, I don't like turning you adrift on the world at such
a time. I only wish that she had a more secure basis for her
happiness."

"She'll be all right," said Crocker. He will probably be thought to
have been justified in carrying on the delusion at such a crisis of
his life.

"But you must take my assurance of this," said Aeolus, looking
more like the god of storms, "that no wife or baby,--no joy or
trouble,--shall save you again if you again deserve dismissal."
Crocker with his most affable smile thanked Sir Boreas and withdrew.
It was said afterwards that Sir Boreas had seen and read that smile
on Roden's face, had put two and two together in regard to him, and
had become sure that there was to be no marriage. But, had he lost
that excuse, where should he find another?

CHAPTER XIX.

"MY MARION."

The blow came very suddenly at last. About the middle of September
the spirit of Marion Fay flitted away from all its earthly joys and
all its earthly troubles. Lord Hampstead saw her alive for the last
time at that interview which was described a few pages back. Whenever
he proposed to go down again to Pegwell Bay some objection was made,
either by the Quaker or by Mrs. Roden on the Quaker's behalf. The
doctor, it was alleged, had declared that such visits were injurious
to his patient,--or perhaps it was that Marion had herself said that
she was unable to bear the excitement. There was, no doubt, some
truth in this. And Marion had seen that though she herself could
enjoy the boundless love which her lover tendered to her, telling
herself that though it was only for a while, it was very sweet to
have it so, yet for him these meetings were full of agony. But in
addition to this there was, I think, a jealousy on the part of
Zachary Fay as to his daughter. When there was still a question
whether the young lord should be his son-in-law, he had been willing
to give way and to subordinate himself, even though his girl were the
one thing left to him in all the world. While there was an idea that
she should be married, there had accompanied that idea a hope, almost
an expectation, that she might live. But when it was brought home
to him as a fact that her marriage was ou