really engaged to Lady Mary
Nugent, or is it a horrible dream?'

'I--yes--I certainly am, my dear--engaged to be married to her
ladyship.'

'And you mean to marry her? Impossible!'

'Do you consider me a man of honour? or am I one likely to break my word
when pledged?'

'Oh! papa, when a woman proposes and makes love, and waits till the very
moment when it suits her own convenience to marry, do you think she
deserves consideration? You know that Lady Mary Nugent has done it all
herself, and that you would never have taken the trouble, or had the
courage to propose for any woman under the sun, if she had not asked you
first. You know you do not want to marry. I would give the world to know
how she managed to bring you to the point.'

'Really, Freda, this is too--too--personal, and rude, I may call
it--and--'

'Forgive me, papa. Of course you are your own master, and are at liberty
to be chosen by any woman, but she will not choose me, nor I her. I hate
Lady Mary Nugent, despise her most intensely, and shall leave this house
before she comes into it; never--'

It seemed as if an invisible hand checked the end of Freda's
determination, for she stopped short at the 'never.'

'But what I came particularly to say, papa, is, that I believe I have
some little private fortune of my own, my dear mother's, in short, and I
suppose I can have that when I like.'

'Certainly--certainly--but--'

'Then I wish both you and Lady Mary Nugent to understand that I shall
not live here. Not on your account, but on hers. I ask, as a particular
favour, that I may not be informed of the day of your marriage; and I
shall make it a point of going away in a month or so, so as to leave you
free to act. I shall hope to hear from you, and to write to you. I am
only sorry for you, because she cannot understand your tastes; but that
is nothing. I don't think either she or her daughter ever read any book
but a fashionable novel in their lives. But what is the difference!
Money and tact against the world! I cannot help speaking my mind for
this first and last time. Forgive me. You will not have me long to speak
it, and my successor never spoke her's in her life, so she will not bore
you by abruptness and sincerity, as I perhaps have done.'

Freda had spoken so fast that she paused to take breath, and during that
necessary process her father wiped his face, as if he, too, were
exhausted by her volubility. Freda could scarcely help smiling.