lodge-gates, flourishing his cap, and crying, 'Hurrah, Jem! All right!' 

 'I'm going to her at once!' cried Jem, beginning to rush off; but Louis caught and imprisoned his arm. 

 'Not so fast, sir! You are to see her. I promise you shall see her if you wish it, but it must be in my aunt's way.' 

 'Let me go, I say!' 

 'When I have walked five miles in your service, you won't afford me an arm to help me back. I am not a horse with wings, and I won't be Cupid's post except on my own terms. Come back.' 

 'I don't stir till I have heard the state of the case.' 

 'Yes, you do; for all the sportsmen will be coming home, and my aunt would not for all the world that Mr. Mansell caught you on the forbidden ground.' 

 'How can you give in to such shuffling nonsense! If I am to claim Isabel openly, why am I not to visit her openly? You have yielded to that woman's crooked policy. I don't trust you!' 

 'When you are her son, you may manage her as you please. Just now she has us in her power, and can impose conditions. Come on; and if you are good, you shall hear.' 

 Drawing James along with him through the beechwood glades, he began, 'You would have been more insane still if you had guessed at my luck. I found Isabel alone. Mrs. Mansell had taken the girls to some juvenile fete, and Delaford was discreet enough not to rouse my aunt from her letters. I augured well from the happy conjunction.' 

 'Go on; don't waste time in stuff.' 

 'Barkis is willing, then. Is that enough to the point?' 

 'Fitzjocelyn, you never had any feelings yourself, and therefore you trifle with those of others.' 

 'I beg your pardon. It was a shame! Jem, you may be proud. She trusts you completely, and whatever you think sufficient, she regards as ample.' 

 'Like her! Only too like her. Such confidence makes one feel a redoubled responsibility.' 

 'I thought I had found something at which you could not grumble.' 

 'How does she look? How do they treat her?' 

 Prev. P 4/287 next