one else.

He did it, but until the day of his death he never forgot it; he could
not bear to think of it, and he never mentioned it. Until the day of his
death he was haunted by a beautiful, passionate face, white with
terrible despair.

He was compelled to speak in what my lady called plain English, or she
would never have understood him. She could not understand in the least
why the fact of Lord Chandos being under twenty-one should make her
marriage null and void; illegal, because contracted without his parents'
consent. She had turned to him with flashing eyes.

"Are the laws of England all framed for the convenience of the rich?"
she asked.

And, proud as he was of his legal knowledge, the lawyer had hesitated
before the fire of her question.

She understood at last--she saw what Mr. Sewell called the justice of
the case--the reasons why such a law was needful, and she knew that she
was not the lawful wife of Lancelot, Lord Chandos. She looked into the
stern face of her companion with eyes filled with awful despair.

"He did not know it," she said; "only tell me that, and I shall be
happier. He did not know it?"

"No," said Mr. Sewell; "I am quite sure that Lord Chandos was ignorant
of the fact--it never occurred to him; if it had done so, he would have
deferred his marriage until he came of age."

"I shall take some comfort in that," she said, slowly. "If he has erred,
it has been done in ignorance and innocence. You say that the wrong can
be righted next June; that he can marry me then without the consent of
either of his parents."

"Certainly he can," replied the lawyer.

Something of the shock of despair passed from her face as he uttered
these words. She folded her arms over her breast with the repressed
passion of a tragedy queen.

"Then I have no fear," she said. "Were the time twice as long, the
cruelty twice as great, the law twice as strong, he would return to me
true and faithful, as he loves me. You can tell his mother that."

"I will," said Mr. Sewell, relieved to see some of the horror fall from
her face.

She would not discuss her future arrangements with him. Lady Lanswell
was anxious that she should take a large sum of money and return home.
She looked at him with the dignity of an outraged queen.

"Before Heaven, and in my own eyes, Lord Chandos is my husband," she
said, with calm dignity; "and with him only will I discuss my future.
You can tell his mother that also. No other