tell the man with
a fly to carry them back at once. Is he in the house?"

"He is about the place," said Mrs. Docimer, almost trembling.

"Is he very fierce against me?"

"He thinks it had better be all over."

"I am of a different way of thinking, you see. I cannot acknowledge
that he has any right to dictate to Imogene."

"Nor can I," said Imogene.

"Of course he can turn me out."

"If he does I shall go with you," said Imogene.

"We have made up our minds to it," said Frank, "and he had better let
us do as we please. He can make himself disagreeable, of course; but
he has got no power to prevent us." Now they had reached the house,
and Frank was of course allowed to enter. Had he not entered neither
would Imogene, who was so much taken by this further instance of
her lover's ardour that she was determined now to be led by him
in everything. His explanation of that word "enticed" had been so
thoroughly satisfactory to her that she was no longer in the least
angry with herself because she had enticed him. She had quite come to
see that it is the duty of a young woman to entice a young man.

Frank and Imogene were soon left alone, not from any kindness of
feeling on the part of Mrs. Docimer, but because the wife felt it
necessary to find her husband. "Oh, Mudbury, who do you think has
come? He is here!"

"Houston!"

"Yes; Frank Houston!"

"In the house?"

"He is in the house. But he hasn't brought anything. He doesn't mean
to stay."

"What does that matter? He shall not be asked even to dine here."

"If he is turned out she will go with him! If she says so she will do
it. You cannot prevent her. That's what would come of it if she were
to insist on going up to London with him."

"He is a scoundrel!"

"No; Mudbury;--not a scoundrel. You cannot call him a scoundrel.
There is something firm about him; isn't there?"

"To come to my house when I told him not?"

"But he does really love her."

"Bother!"

"At any rate there they are in the breakfast-parlour, and something
must be done. I couldn't tell him not to come in. And she wouldn't
have come without him. There will be enough for them to live upon.
Don't you think you'd better?" Docimer, as he returned to the house,
declared that he "did not think he'd better." But he had to confess
to himself that, whether it were better or whether it were worse, he
could do very little to prevent it.

The greeting of the two men was anything but pleasant. "