n, one of the finest girls that had ever been seen
about London; and, as for loving her,--he did love her. A man might
be fond of two dogs, or have two pet horses, and why shouldn't he
love two women! Of course he loved his cousin. But his circumstances
at the moment were difficult, and he didn't quite know how to explain
all this.

"When is it to be?" she said, urging her question imperiously.

In answer to this he gave her to understand that there was still a
good deal of difficulty. He told her something of his position with
Captain Stubber, and defined,--not with absolute correctness,--the
amount of consent which Sir Harry had given to the marriage.

"And what am I to do?" she asked.

He looked blankly into her face. She then rose again, and unlocking a
desk with a key that hung at her girdle, she took from it a bundle of
papers.

"There," she said; "there is the letter in which I have your promise
to marry me when I am free;--as I am now. It could not be less
injurious to you than when locked up there; but the remembrance of
it might frighten you." She threw the letter to him across the table,
but he did not touch it. "And here are others which might be taken to
mean the same thing. There! I am not so injured as I might seem to
be,--for I never believed them. How could I believe anything that you
would say to me,--anything that you would write?"

"Don't be down on me too hard, Lucy."

"No, I will not be down upon you at all. If these things pained you,
I would not say them. Shall I destroy the letters?" Then she took
them, one after another, and tore them into small fragments. "You
will be easier now, I know."

"Easy! I am not very easy, I can tell you."

"Captain Stubber will not let you off so gently as I do. Is that it?"

Then there was made between them a certain pecuniary arrangement,
which if Mrs. Morton trusted at all the undertaking made to her,
showed a most wonderful faith on her part. She would lend him L250
towards the present satisfaction of Captain Stubber; and this sum, to
be lent for such a purpose, she would consent to receive back again
out of Sir Harry's money. She must see a certain manager, she said;
but she did not doubt but that her loan would be forthcoming on the
Saturday morning. Captain George Hotspur accepted the offer, and was
profuse in his thanks. After that, when he was going, her weakness
was almost equal to his vileness.

"You will come and see me," she said, as she h