te.

News came with the next day's courier, for Dorothy dutifully
acquainted her father, in a touching letter, with all the details of
the engagement, the elopement, and the marriage. Manners, too, sent a
note to the baron, in which he pathetically pleaded Dorothy's
cause. "And sure," the epistle concluded, "so doting a father as you
undoubtedly are would not force so loving a daughter to wed against
her will. You clearly sought her welfare and, in choosing Sir Edward
Stanley, thought you were doing well for her, but it was a sad
mistake. I have her undivided love, and even if we are for ever
banished from 'dear old Haddon,' as Doll delights to call it, we shall
be happy in each other's confidence and love; though I confess that
Dorothy hath a tender heart and grieves to think how you must regard
her. None but myself, she declares, could ever have led her to leave
thee. I feel for thee, but I feel for my sweet Doll, too. At thy
bidding, whenever given, we will gladly visit thee. Till then--adieu."

"Married!" cried Lady Vernon, aghast, as Sir Thomas Stanley read the
letter aloud. She was speechless with rage and could say no more, but
her looks betokened the feelings of her heart."

"Married!" echoed Sir Edward, in dismay.

"Aye, married," responded Sir Thomas. "You have lost her, Edward; it
is as I said."

"Poor, foolish Dorothy," exclaimed the baron, in a decidedly
sympathetic frame of mind. "Poor Doll."

"Poor Dorothy, indeed," retorted Lady Maude, sharply. "Wicked,
perverse Dorothy, you mean, Sir George. I shall never look at her
again. We must make her undo the marriage bond again, Sir Edward," she
continued, turning to the disappointed lover.

Even that rash knight could see the futility of such advice, and he
despondently shook his head.

"Nay," he said, "I fear that cannot be easily done."

"Easily done, sir knight," tauntingly replied the dame. "Who talks of
ease in a matter like this? It must--it shall be done."

"It cannot be done," replied Sir Thomas, promptly. "Manners will have
been too careful to allow of that. We must resign ourselves to the
loss; and you, Edward, will have to seek elsewhere for a bride."

"'Resign' and 'cannot,'" continued Lady Vernon, contemptuously.
"Did'st ever hear the like of it, Margaret?"

But Margaret was mercifully inclined, and by siding with Dorothy she
would be supporting her husband. Therefore she could not agree with
the angry declamations of her stepmother.