will be fond of me, won't you? You will be good to me?"

"I will, so help me God!" says Rylton very solemnly.

To her it seems an oath of allegiance--kindly, tender, reassuring.
To him it is a solemn abjuration of all his devotion to--the other.



CHAPTER X.

HOW MAURICE GIVES WAY TO TEMPER, AND HOW LADY RYLTON PLANTS A SHAFT
OR TWO. AND HOW MARGARET SAYS A WORD IN SEASON, AND HOW IN RETURN
COLONEL NEILSON SAYS A WORD TO HER.



Maurice goes straight to his mother's room, not from a sense of
duty, but a desire to clinch the matter finally. Lady Rylton would
be the last person to permit backsliding where her own interests
were concerned, and perhaps---- He does not exactly say it to
himself in so many words, but he feels a certain dread of the moment
when he shall be alone--a prey to thought. What if he should regret
the move he had taken, to the extent of wanting it undone? His step
grows quicker as he approaches his mother's room. His interview with
her is of the slightest--a bare declaration of the fact. She would
have fallen upon his neck in the exuberance of her triumph and her
satisfaction, but he coldly repulses her.

"My dear mother, why such enthusiasm over my engagement to a girl of