e--engaged to her!" The shock had cone. His mother's terrible
alternative was now before him in all its naked horror. A shiver ran
through him. The thought of a man, with a future as brilliant as his,
being blighted at the outset by such a misalliance. He felt the colour
leave his face. He knew he was ghastly pale. The little arbour seemed
to close in on him and stifle him. He could scarcely breathe. He
murmured, his eyes half closed, as if picturing some vivid nightmare:
"Engaged! Don't, mother, please." He trembled again: "Good lord!
Engaged to that tomboy!" The thought seemed to strike him to the very
core of his being. He who might ally himself with anyone sacrificing
his hopes of happiness and advancement with a child of the earth.

"Don't, mother!" he repeated in a cry of entreaty.

"She has the blood of the Kingsnorths!" reminded, Mrs. Chichester. "It
is pretty well covered up in O'Connell Irish," replied Alaric bitterly.
"Please don't say any more, mater. You have upset me for the day.
Really, you have for the whole day." But his mother was not to be
shaken so easily in her determination. She went on:

"She has the breeding of my sister Angela, dear."

"You wouldn't think it to watch her and listen to her. Now, once and
for all" and he tried to pass his mother and go into the garden.

There was no escape. Mrs. Chichester held him firmly:

"She will have five thousand pounds a year when she is twenty-one!"

She looked the alarmed youth straight in the eyes. She was fighting for
her own. She could not bear to think of parting with this home where
she had lived so happily with her husband, and where her two children
were born and reared. Even though Peg was not of the same caste, much
could be done with her. Once accept her into the family and the rest
would be easy.

As she looked piercingly into Alaric's eyes, he caught the full
significance of the suggestion. His lips pursed to whistle--but no
sound came through them. He muttered hoarsely, as though he were
signing away his right to happiness.

"Five thousand pounds a year! Five thousand of the very best!" Mrs.
Chichester took the slowly articulated words in token of acceptance. He
would do it! She knew he would! Always ready to rise to a point of
honour and to face a duty or confront a danger, he was indeed her son.

She took him in her arms and pressed his reluctant and shrinking body
to her breast.

"Oh, my boy!" she wailed joyfully. "My dear, dea