through the window, with her veil drooping
all on one side, to take a close survey
of it. Unless George discovered that it
was not a church, her survey invariably
ended in her supposing that perhaps that
might be the very place. After experiencing
great difficulties in getting the
keys, and when once we were inside the
church, Mrs. Haddan clasped George's
arm with both hands, and paced modestly
up the middle aisle to the altar. There
she stood for a minute or two with down-
cast eyes and blushing face, as if waiting
for the voice of the priest, and then she
would look up to him in tears:

"George, dear," she murmured, "I do
believe— I think I have a sensation that
this is the very spot."

After that George and I rushed to the
vestry, and if the registers for twenty-two
years back were still there, we searched
eagerly through the year of her marriage;
but all to no avail. Once we came to a
church in course of demolition— a new
street coming that way. The roof was
half off, and the pews and pulpit gone.
She felt the same sensation there, and I
gave it up.

"Perhaps, my dear," she said, when we
returned to the carriage, "it may have
been a chapel. Young Mr. Haddan was a
very peculiar man; and his mother's
relations were some of them Dissenters."

"We answered nothing, but drove back to
the hotel, where she went to bed with a
nervous headache.

"George," I said, as soon as we were
alone, "this is of no use at all. Mrs. Haddan
will never know the place. We must try
something else."

"What else, Fortune?" he asked,
despondently.

"Let us talk it over quietly," I said;
"my dear George, you feel quite persuaded
in your own mind that your father did
marry your mother?"

The blood rushed up into his face, and
his teeth fastened sharply into his under
lip. I do not know what he was going
to say, for I stopped him by putting my
arm round his neck, as I had done
hundreds of times when we were children;
though I had quite left it off of late.

"Hush, George," I whispered in his ear.
"It was only Fortune that said it, but
there will be scores of people to ask the
same question. You will always be the
same. Don't be angry with me."

"No," he answered, in a smothered
voice, "no, Fortune; but if any man said
it——" George clenched his fists, and
struck his own knee with it savagely, in
a manner which startled me.

"George," I said, "depend upon it if
the certificate is destroyed the register is
destroyed. Would anybody in their senses
imagine that your mother would not know
where she was married?"

"I suppose not," he answered, more
despondently than before.

"They are rich, and you are poor," I
said, looking steadily into his face; "you
will be very poor if we fail."

"I am a man," he replied, lifting up his
head with new energy, "I can make my
own way. It is not that."

I knew what it was well enough. At
least I fancied I knew what it was. Yet
when I came to think of it I could not be
so sure. I never felt so strangely in my
whole life, never. Instead of reading his
heart like an open book, it was all closed
against me.

"You will be always the same to me,"
I said, falteringly.

He sighed, and leaving his seat beside
me, he wandered restlessly to the window,
and looked out into the street below with
a cloudy face. I watched him with the
full light upon his features, revealing every
change of expression, yet I could not make
out what he was thinking about.

"I'll spend every cent of my money before
I give it up," he said.

"And mine," I added.

His face changed, but he shook his head.
I kept silence for a minute or two, dread-
ing to say what I had to say; but it had to
be done.

"Come back, George," I said, " and
stand opposite to me, just so."

He did as I bade him, and stood looking
down upon me with troubled eyes.

"Now," I said, putting up my hands to
my cheeks, which were burning, "will you
answer me a simple question frankly, yes
or no?"

"To be sure, Fortune," he replied.

"Well, then," I went on, speaking very
fast, "perhaps I am only a vain, conceited
girl, but I have fancied sometimes you
cared more for me than a sister. Do you?"

"Yes," he answered.

"Then how foolish we both are," I said,
between laughing and crying; "we have
only to get married, and then you will have
plenty of money to set about establishing
your rights."

"No, no," answered George, and putting
both his arms round me in a very agreeable