ubject. I lost no time in
consulting an eminent London surgeon, but his reply was that the
symptoms were usual in cases of pregnancy, but that they were not
infallible signs of it, as they sometimes occurred from other causes.
It was, however, obvious that some arrangement must be made to provide
for the occurrence of the possible event. I, of course, told Laura that
if it should turn out as she feared, we must make up our minds to run
off together and, getting up a story of her having been previously
privately married, keep out of the way until the noise of the affair
blew over. This plan, however, did not meet her approbation. She said
that whatever might really have been the case, everyone would at once
say from the difference in our ages that she must have seduced me and
that she would never be able to show her face again in society, and
that moreover she could not think of inflicting such a penalty on me as
to saddle me for life with a wife older than myself, when she had been
as much to blame in the matter as I had.

After a great deal of consideration I ventured to hint whether her best
plan would not be to accept Sir Charles Tracy, marry him at once, and
get the ceremony over without delay, so that if a child did come, there
might be at least the lapse of six months to admit of the possibility
of his being the father.

I must here explain that Sir Charles had been an almost constant
resident at the Hall ever since my arrival, and was evidently looked
upon by the family as a suitor. He was a young man of about
twenty-seven, of large fortune, tall, handsome, and well made, not
particularly clever, but almost the best-tempered and most good-natured
person I ever met. His object in remaining so long was quite obvious.
Although she would never admit it, I had all along fancied that Laura
liked him; but since I had become so intimate with her, she certainly
had shown more coldness towards him than she did on my first arrival.

At first, Laura said this plan would never do. But, as we could devise
nothing else, on my pressing her a little on the subject she admitted
that before I came she had made up her mind to accept him if he
proposed, but that she was afraid to do so now for two reasons: first,
she feared he might discover on his first attack that someone had had
access before him to the sanctuary of love, and secondly, from the
dread that in the event of a child coming before the usual time he
might denounce he