ets fully crossed; but this did not discompose her in the least.
He was worked hard at his office, and had hundreds of other things
to do. He, too, could say,--so thought Dorothy,--more in eight lines
than she could put into as many pages.

She was quite happy when she was told that the marriage could not
take place till August, but that Brooke must come again in July.
Brooke did come in the first week of July, and somewhat horrified
Dorothy by declaring to her that Miss Stanbury was unreasonable.

"If I insist upon leaving London so often for a day or two," said he,
"how am I to get anything like leave of absence when the time comes?"
In answer to this Dorothy tried to make him understand that business
should not be neglected, and that, as far as she was concerned, she
could do very well without that trip abroad which he had proposed for
her. "I'm not going to be done in that way," said Brooke. "And now
that I am here she has nothing to say to me. I've told her a dozen
times that I don't want to know anything about her will, and that
I'll take it all for granted. There is something to be settled on
you, that she calls her own."

"She is so generous, Brooke."

"She is generous enough, but she is very whimsical. She is going
to make her whole will over again, and now she wants to send some
message to Uncle Barty. I don't know what it is yet, but I am to take
it. As far as I can understand, she has sent all the way to London
for me, in order that I may take a message across the Close."

"You talk as though it were very disagreeable, coming to Exeter,"
said Dorothy, with a little pout.

"So it is,--very disagreeable."

"Oh, Brooke!"

"Very disagreeable if our marriage is to be put off by it. I think
it will be so much nicer making love somewhere on the Rhine than
having snatches of it here, and talking all the time about wills and
tenements and settlements." As he said this, with his arm round her
waist and his face quite close to hers,--shewing thereby that he was
not altogether averse even to his present privileges,--she forgave
him.

On that same afternoon, just before the banking hours were over,
Brooke went across to the house of Cropper and Burgess, having first
been closeted for nearly an hour with his aunt,--and, as he went,
his step was sedate and his air was serious. He found his uncle
Barty, and was not very long in delivering his message. It was to
this effect,--that Miss Stanbury particularly wishe