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"Less than you suppose, sir; but you will remember that my mother is esteemed as a terrible power by all concerned with her Even when she seemed to love me tenderly, I was made to knohat it was to cross her will, and alas! she always carries her point"

"It did seem a mode of protection," said Betty, more kindly

"And" added the youth, "my uncle impressed on me from the first that he only consented on condition the I treated this wedlock as betrothal alone, never met my sweet love save in his dark room, and never revealedher until I shall coe, or Mr Wayland comes home, when I shall woo her openly, and if needful, repeat the ceree Meanwhile I wrote the whole to my stepfather, and am amazed that he has never written nor co I have heard," said the Major "Though--did your uncle expect your young blood to keep the ter that I ventured on any advances, for they startled her enough to make her swoon away I carried her froed me back before the colour caht coh the chinks of the shutters Judge of the distraction I lived in!"

Betty looked shocked, but her father chuckled a little, though he maintained his tone of censure "Andinterviews took place?"

"Cruelly seldom for one to whom they were life itself! Mar is, as you know, colonel of my corps, and my liberty has been restrained as uard and on court- in the service; but about once in a fortnight I could contrive to ride down to a little wayside inn where I kept a fresh horse, also a livery coat and hat I tied up my horse in a barn on the borders of the park, and put on a black vizard, so as to pass for et admittance to my uncle's rooms unknown to any servant save faithful Jumbo--who has been the sole depository of our secret However, since my mother's return from Bath, where the compact with Lady Aresfield was fully determined, the persecution has been fiercer Ito act e to ant who is to be forced on me At any rate, I have been so intolerably watched whenever I was not on duty, that my hours of bliss becaes me with indiscretion, and says my ardour aroused unreasonable suspicions He was constantly anxious, and would baulkso, and then would drivewhether he was to keep up my character for consistency in my absence