ner that you
must have known could not fail to be most obnoxious to me.'

'O papa, I did not know; it was only yesterday that Mr. Egerton
spoke for the first time. There has been nothing hidden from you.'

'Nothing? Do you call your intimate acquaintance with this man
nothing? He may have delayed any actual declaration until my return--
with an artful appearance of consideration for me; but some kind of
love-affair must have been going on between you all the time.'

'No, indeed, papa; until yesterday there was never anything but the
most ordinary acquaintance. Mary knows--'

'Pray don't appeal to Miss Crofton,' her father interrupted sternly.
'Miss Crofton has done very wrong in encouraging this affair. Miss
Crofton heard my opinion of Angus Egerton a long time ago.'

'Mary has done nothing to encourage our acquaintance. It has been
altogether a matter of accident from first to last. What have you
said to Mr. Egerton, papa? Tell me at once, please.'

She said this with a quiet firmness, looking bravely up at him all
the while.

'I have told him that nothing would induce me to consent to such a
marriage. I have forbidden him ever to see you again.'

'That seems very hard, papa.'

'I thought you knew my opinion of Mr. Egerton.'

'It would change if you knew more of him.'

'Never. I might like him very well as a member of society; I could
never approve of him as a son-in-law. Besides, I have other views
for you--long-cherished views--which I hope you will not disappoint.'

'I don't know what you mean by that, papa; but I know that I can
never marry any one except Mr. Egerton. I may never marry at all, if
you refuse to change your decision upon this subject; but I am quite
sure I shall never be the wife of any one else.'

Her father looked at her angrily. That hard expression about the
lower part of the face, which I had noticed in his portrait and in
himself from the very first, was intensified to-day. He looked a
stern resolute man, whose will was not to be moved by a daughter's
pleading.

'We shall see about that by and by,' he said. 'I am not going to
have my plans defeated by a girl's folly. I have been a very
indulgent father, but I am not a weak or yielding one. You will have
to obey me, Milly, or you will find yourself a substantial sufferer
by and by.'

'If you mean that you will disinherit me, papa, I am quite willing
that you should do that,' Milly answered resolutely. 'Perhaps you
think Mr. E