e out from Mondreer. But I never really approved of marrying
cousins, Odalite, merely to keep the family name on the family estate."

"But, mother, darling, Le and I never thought of the family name and
estate; we only thought of one another. And, besides, we are such very,
very distant cousins--only fourth or fifth, I think--that that objection
could never be raised. Oh, mother! dear mother! do not compel me to break
with Le! I cannot! I cannot! Oh, indeed, I cannot!" she cried, burying her
face in the lady's bosom.

Elfrida Force caressed her daughter in silence.

Presently Odalite lifted her head and pleaded:

"He is coming home so soon now, and so full of hope! He expects to be here
by Christmas; and he expects--oh, yes, I know by his last letter that he
expects to--to--to----" The girl's eyes fell under the compassionate yet
scrutinizing gaze of her mother, and her voice faltered into silence.

"To marry you early in the new year, I suppose you mean, dear."

"Yes, mother."

"He did not say so."

"No, mother, dear, he did not say so, in so many words, but from the whole
tone of his letter he evidently meant so. Father thought he did, and even
tried to tease me about the New Year's wedding--asking me how many
hundreds I should need to buy my wedding clothes."

"What was it he said in his letter that leads you to suppose he has any
such expectations? I confess that I saw nothing of such an intention when
I read the letter."

"Only this, mother, but it was very significant. He wrote that now he had
inherited Greenbushes and all his Aunt Laura's money, he was rich enough
to resign from the navy, and he need not go to sea any more, nor ever part
with me again; but that he could stay home, repair and refurnish the
house, improve the land, and farm it on all the new principles, and make
the place a paradise for us to live in. He wrote, mother, dear, as of
certain fixed facts."

"He was very presumptuous, my dear little girl, for there is nothing
certain in this world of changes," gravely commented the lady.

"But Le's heart has not changed, nor has mine."

"My poor darling," said Elfrida Force, smoothing her daughter's dark hair
with a gentle hand, "my precious child! It grieves me to do so, but I must
prepare you for what seems inevitable. You must forget all this youthful
folly, and think of Leonidas Force only as a cousin. You do not really
love him as a betrothed maiden should love her affianced husband.