hat he had done things,--the wickedest
things in the world?"

"I might break my heart in thinking of it, but I should never give
him up."

"If he were a murderer?" suggested Lady Elizabeth, with horror.

The girl paused, feeling herself to be hardly pressed, and then came
that look upon her brow which Lady Elizabeth understood as well as
did Sir Harry. "Then I would be a murderer's wife," she said.

"Oh, Emily!"

"I must make you understand me, Mamma, and I want Papa to understand
it too. No consideration on earth shall make me say that I will
give him up. They may prove if they like that he was on all the
racecourses in the world, and get that Mrs. Stackpoole to swear to
it;--and it is ten times worse for a woman to go than it is for a
man, at any rate;--but it will make no difference. If you and Papa
tell me not to see him or write to him,--much less to marry him,--of
course I shall obey you. But I shall not give him up a bit the more,
and he must not be told that I will give him up. I am sure Papa will
not wish that anything untrue should be told. George will always be
to me the dearest thing in the whole world,--dearer than my own soul.
I shall pray for him every night, and think of him all day long. And
as to the property, Papa may be quite sure that he can never arrange
it by any marriage that I shall make. No man shall ever speak to me
in that way, if I can help it. I won't go where any man can speak to
me. I will obey,--but it will be at the cost of my life. Of course
I will obey Papa and you; but I cannot alter my heart. Why was he
allowed to come here,--the head of our own family,--if he be so bad
as this? Bad or good, he will always be all the world to me."

To such a daughter as this Lady Elizabeth had very little to say that
might be of avail. She could quote Sir Harry, and entertain some dim
distant wish that Cousin George might even yet be found to be not
quite so black as he had been painted.

CHAPTER XV.

COUSIN GEORGE IS HARD PRESSED.

The very sensible and, as one would have thought, very manifest idea
of buying up Cousin George originated with Mr. Boltby. "He will have
his price, Sir Harry," said the lawyer. Then Sir Harry's eyes were
opened, and so excellent did this mode of escape seem to him that he
was ready to pay almost any price for the article. He saw it at a
glance. Emily had high-flown notions, and would not yield; he feared
that she would not yield, let Cousin George's