sn't the General a little premature in getting
his daughter settled? Talk of match-making mothers after this!"

The young man's flippant tone jarred upon his father. "He had good
reasons for the haste to which you object, Guy," said Lord Chetwynde.
"One was the friendlessness of his daughter in the event of any thing
happening to him; and the other, and a stronger motive (for under any
circumstances I should have been her guardian), was to assist your
father upon the only terms upon which he could have accepted
assistance with honor. By this arrangement his daughter reaps the
full benefit of his money, and he has his own mind at ease. And,
remember, Guy," continued Lord Chetwynde, solemnly, "from this time
you must consider yourself as a married man; for, although no altar
vow or priestly benediction binds you, yet by every law of that Honor
by which you profess to be guided, you are bound _irrevocably_."

"I know that," answered Guy, lightly. "I think you will never find me
unmindful of that tie."

"I trust you, my boy," said Lord Chetwynde, "as I would trust
myself."

CHAPTER IV.

A STARTLING VISITOR.

After dinner the General had retired to his room, supposing that Guy
and the Earl would wish to be together. He had much to think of.
First of all there was his daughter Zillah, in whom all his being was
bound up. Her miniature was on the mantle-piece of the room, and to
this he went first, and taking it up in his hands he sat down in an
arm-chair by the window, and feasted his eyes upon it. His face bore
an expression of the same delight which a lover shows when looking at
the likeness of his mistress. At times a smile lighted it up, and so
wrapt up was he in this that more than an hour passed before he put
the picture away. Then he resumed his seat by the window and looked
out. It was dusk; but the moon was shining brightly, and threw a
silvery gleam over the dark trees of Chetwynde, over the grassy
slopes, and over the distant hills. That scene turned his attention
in a new direction. The shadows of the trees seemed to suggest the
shadows of the past. Back over that past his mind went wandering,
encountering the scenes, the forms, and the faces of long ago--the
lost, the never-to-be-forgotten. It was not that more recent past of
which he had spoken to the Earl, but one more distant--one which
intermingled with the Earl's past, and which the Earl's story had
suggested.

It brought back old loves an