"Exactly!" said Mr. Creswell. "As I
say, it isn't as if it were a stranger!
Marian has been domiciled "with us now
for some time, and there is no reason why,
so far as you and she are concerned,
things should not go on exactly as they
have done! At least, I know this to be her
wish and mine!" he added, after a short
pause.

"Whatever is your wish, uncle, I'm
sure Gertrude and I will be delighted
to fulfil—"

"Delighted!" interposed Gertrude.

"And I don't think Miss Ashurst will
find us give her any trouble!"

"Miss Ashurst! Why not speak of her
as Marian, my dear?" said Mr. Creswell.

"She has always been Miss Ashurst to
me hitherto, and you know I'm not going
to marry her, uncle!" said Maud, almost
brusquely.

"What do you think of Miss A. now?"
said Gertrude, when the girls were back in
their room. "I used to laugh about her
being superior! But she has shown herself
superior to us with a vengeance! Fancy
having her for an aunt, and having to ask her
permission to do this and that, and go here
and there! Oh my! Why don't you speak,
Maud—why don't you say something about
all this?"

"Because I can't trust myself to speak,"
said Maud, hurriedly. "Because I'm afraid
of blurting out something that were better
left unsaid."

"Oh, then, you're not so pleased at the
connexion! I'm sure by the way in which
you wished your uncle happiness, one would
have thought that the dearest wish of your
heart had been realised. What do you
think of Miss A.'s conduct, I mean as
regards this matter?"

"Just what I think of it, and have
always thought of it as regards every other
matter, that it is selfish, base, and deceitful.
That woman came here with a predetermined
plan of marrying uncle, and chance
has helped her to carry it into effect, even
more quickly than she anticipated. Tom saw
that, he told us so, if you recollect. Poor
Tom! he was a dull, unpleasant lad, but he
was wonderfully shrewd, and he saw through
this woman's tactics in a minute, and
determined to spoil them. He would have
done so, had he lived, and now, I've no
doubt that the very fact of his death has
been the means of hurrying uncle into
taking this step!"

"Do you think Miss A. cares for uncle, Maud?"

"Cares for him—what do you mean?"

"Well, of course, I don't mean to be
awfully fond, and all that sort of thing,
like lovers, you know, and all that! What
do you think she—well, she's fond of
him?"

"Of him? No! she's fond of his name
and his position, his money and his
influence! She's fond of Woolgreaves, she
has become accustomed to its comforts,
and she does not choose to give them up!"

"I don't know that Miss A. is to be
particularly pitched into for that, Maud,"
said Gertrude. "I think, perhaps, we ought
to look at home before making any such
suggestions! We have become accustomed
to the comforts of Woolgreaves, and we—
at least I—should be uncommonly sorry to
give them up!"

"Well, but we have some claim to them;
at all events we are of uncle's blood and
did not come here designedly with view
to  establish ourselves here as I'm certain
this woman did! And when you talk of
our not giving up our present life—look
to it!"

"Look, Maud! What do you mean?"

"What do I mean! That we shall have
to change our lives very quickly! You
don't suppose Marian Ashurst is going to
live her life with us as constant reminders
to her of what was? You don't suppose
that we—that I, at least, am going to waste
my life with her as my rock ahead—not I,
indeed!"

"Well, Maud," said Gertrude, quietly,
"I don't suppose anything about anything!
I never do. What you propose I shall agree
to, and that's all I know or all I care for!"

It was Marian's wish that the marriage
should be delayed for some little time, but
Mr. Creswell was of the opposite advice,
and thought it would be better to have the
ceremony as soon as possible. "Life is
very short, Marian," he said, "and I am
too old to think of deferring my happiness.
I am looking to you as my wife to brighten
and soothe the rest of my days, and I am
selfish enough to grudge every one of them
until you are in that position! It is all
very well for young people to have their
term of courtship and engagement, and all
the rest of it, but you are going to throw
yourself away on an old man, dear one,"
and he smiled fondly and patted her cheek,
"and you must be content to dispense with
that, and come to him at once!"

"Content is not the word to express my
feelings and wishes in the matter!" said
Marian; "only I thought that—after