e would you go to?"

"Oh, where indeed? Of course he would have me, but it would be ruin
to him to marry a wife without a penny when he earns only enough for
his own wants. His father has quarrelled with him altogether. He says
that nobody can prevent our being married if we please, and that he
is quite ready to make a home for me instantly; but I know that last
year he hardly earned more than two hundred pounds after paying all
his expenses, and were I to take him at his word I should ruin him."

"Would Uncle Tom turn you out?"

"He has been away almost ever since Mr. Hamel came to Glenbogie, and
I do not know what he will say. Aunt Emmeline declares that I can
only stay with them just as though I were her daughter, and that a
daughter would be bound to obey her."

"Does Gertrude obey her about Mr. Houston?"

"Gertrude has her own way with her mother altogether. And of course a
daughter cannot really be turned out. If she tells me to go I suppose
I must go."

"I should ask Uncle Tom," said Ayala. "She could not make you go out
into the street. When she had to get rid of me, she could send me
here in exchange; but she can't say now that you don't suit, and have
me back again."

"Oh, Ayala, it is so miserable. I feel that I do not know what to do
with myself."

"Nor do I," said Ayala, jumping up from the bed on which she was
sitting. "It does seem to be so cross-grained. Nobody will let you
marry, and everybody will make me."

"Do they still trouble you about Tom?"

"It is not Tom now, Lucy. Another man has come up."

"As a lover?"

"Oh, yes; quite so. His name is,--such a name, Lucy,--his name is
Colonel Jonathan Stubbs."

"That is Isadore's friend,--the man who lives at Drumcaller."

"Exactly. He told me that Mr. Hamel was at Drumcaller with him. And
now he wants me to be his wife."

"Do you not like him?"

"That is the worst part of it all, Lucy. If I did not like him I
should not mind it half so much. It is just because I like him so
very much that I am so very unhappy. His hair is just the colour of
Aunt Emmeline's big shawl."

"What does that signify?"

"And his mouth stretches almost from ear to ear."

"I shouldn't care a bit for his mouth."

"I don't think I do much, because he does look so good-natured when
he laughs. Indeed he is always the most good-natured man that ever
lived."

"Has he got an income enough for marriage?" asked Lucy, whose sorrows
were already springing from that