"William could not act. The appeal was only a
sign of distress.)

"I beg your pardon. Will——?"

"Yes. The — the fact is, I am a very poor
retailer of gossip, and am sure to make some
blunder or other. But Will — Will is the man.
That fellow chronicles every incident in the
neighbourhood; and sometimes, as we are
jogging along the road, gallops up, saluting, and
reports some nonsense he has picked up, as if
it were tidings from an outpost. Well, I must
say good morning."

"You will do no such thing," said Mrs.
Mulcaster, decisively, "until you have explained
why you hesitated when I said there was no
pretext for this wild story of Miss Shrapnell's."

"Did I hesitate?" said the colonel. "No—-
did I?" He glanced uneasily at Mildred.
Should he tell all he knew, all that the
too-reliable Will had been reporting to him, up to
the moment that he, the colonel, dismounted at
the door?

Relief came from an unexpected quarter.

"Sir George Gosling has not decided to
marry his cook," said Mildred, with a perfectly
steady voice and look. "Will you tell us,
Colonel Lugard, if you are aware of his
engagement to any other lady?"

Had the colonel detected the slightest change
of colour, the minutest tremour of tone, he
would have fenced with the question, direct as
it was. Taking courage, however, from the
speaker's, he boldly admitted — of course, on the
authority of Will Crooke — that the young
baronet was understood to have made his selection,
and that it had fallen upon a young lady
every way qualified to grace her future station.

"That is — very well," said Mildred, in the same
steady voice; "and — who ———" but there the
sound suddenly became a whisper, and ceased.

"Who is it?" asked Louisa.

"You remember," replied the colonel, "my
mentioning a young person of singular appearance
(some might call her handsome), whom I
met in the park, and who picked up my——-"

A cry from Mrs. Mulcaster! Louisa glancing
like a white meteor across the room! She was
barely in time. Mildred fell into her sister's
arms, her beautiful hair flooding the ground.
Her desperate attempt to enact the heroine had
failed. Nature triumphed.

As for the poor colonel, alarmed yet helpless,
as men usually are under such circumstances,
and conscience-stricken besides, after making a
feint towards the bell, then towards the window,
murmurs of "Will Crooke" issuing from
his lips, he judged it best to sound a retreat.
While lingering in the hall, a message from Mrs.
Mulcaster announced that her daughter,
restored to consciousness, had been conveyed to her
room, and that she herself begged him to return.

"Can you," she said, "spare me five minutes
longer?"

"Can I, my dear lady," exclaimed the gossip-
loving veteran, "I will." The colonel then
related all he knew from Will Crooke about the
meeting in the rose garden, the encounter with
the dog, and the sudden engagement between
Sir George and Esther Vann.

"He had known her long?"

"Since five o'clock in the morning," said the
colonel; "at which hour they met, quite
accidentally, in the rose-pleasance. The acquaintance,
however, ripened very rapidly. George's
black dog, Swartz, selected that opportune
moment for doing what, in my humble opinion,
his master must have done before him. He
went mad. The insane parties met, and but for
the really heroic conduct of this girl, Esther
Vann, very grave results might have ensued.
If she did not actually save his life, she
delivered him, at the risk of her own, from
imminent peril. They were engaged before she
quitted the house that day. The marriage is to
take place almost immediately."

"A most delicate proceeding!" exclaimed the
lady.

"It was not so purposed," resumed the
colonel, revelling in the full tide of gossip, "but
there was a row. Before George had made
up his mind to inform his sister, Lady Haughfield,
of his new engagement, some one (I know
not who) did it for him. Down came my
lady as fast as four horses could bring her, to
remonstrate. No avail. George was kind, but
immutable. This girl, who, he admitted, was
his cook's niece and a nursery governess, but
decently educated, should be his wife. Clara,
in despair, telegraphed for Haughfield. (A bad
move.) Down comes my lord, secretly furious,
and, at the first interview, lost all that slight
amount of temper he usually possesses.
Gosling had borne with his sister, but he wouldn't
stand that; and, to end the story, his visitors
departed, carrying with them the assurance that
George would resent their ill-advised and
worse-managed interposition, by carrying out his
intention at the very earliest moment to which
the young lady could be prevailed on to agree.
What arguments he used,"concluded the
colonel, "I cannot pretend to say; but of this I
am certain — Will Crooke knows it to be a fact
—that the girl has consented to shorten, very
materially, the interval for which, with a
propriety for which we can't deny her credit, she
had at first stipulated. The cook, her aunt,
has removed to a small farm-house a few miles
from hence, where her niece will, no doubt,
join her, and the ceremony will take place
at the little village — Rosedale — close at hand."

"A thousand thanks, my good friend," said
Mrs. Mulcaster, rising nervously, and looking
considerably alarmed at the task before her.

          Now ready, In One Volume, post 8vo,
                  The SECOND EDITION of
             AUNT MARGARET'S TROUBLE
    London: CHAPMAN and HALL, 193, Piccadilly.