d to
acknowledge to himself that he was afraid of Lady Amelia, and almost
even afraid of Mortimer Gazebee. He was aware that they watched him,
and knew all his goings out and comings in. They called him Adolphus,
and made him tame. That coming evil day in February was dinned into
his ears. Lady Amelia would go and look at furniture for him, and
talked by the hour about bedding and sheets. "You had better get your
kitchen things at Tomkins'. They're all good, and he'll give you
ten per cent. off if you pay him ready money,--which, of course,
you will, you know!" Was it for this that he had sacrificed Lily
Dale?--for this that he had allied himself with the noble house of
de Courcy?

Mortimer had been at him about the settlements from the very first
moment of his return to London, and had already bound him up hand and
foot. His life was insured, and the policy was in Mortimer's hands.
His own little bit of money had been already handed over to be tied
up with Lady Alexandrina's little bit. It seemed to him that in
all the arrangements made the intention was that he should die off
speedily, and that Lady Alexandrina should be provided with a decent
little income, sufficient for St. John's Wood. Things were to be so
settled that he could not even spend the proceeds of his own money,
or of hers. They were to go, under the fostering hands of Mortimer
Gazebee, in paying insurances. If he would only die the day after
his marriage, there would really be a very nice sum of money for
Alexandrina, almost worthy of the acceptance of an earl's daughter.
Six months ago he would have considered himself able to turn Mortimer
Gazebee round his finger on any subject that could be introduced
between them. When they chanced to meet Gazebee had been quite humble
to him, treating him almost as a superior being. He had looked down
on Gazebee from a very great height. But now it seemed as though he
were powerless in this man's hands.

But perhaps the countess had become his greatest aversion. She
was perpetually writing to him little notes in which she gave him
multitudes of commissions, sending him about as though he had been
her servant. And she pestered him with advice which was even worse
than her commissions, telling him of the style of life in which
Alexandrina would expect to live, and warning him very frequently
that such an one as he could not expect to be admitted within the
bosom of so noble a family without paying very dearly for