DEAR MARGERY TUCKER (ran the note)--They say I am not likely to live,
so I want to see you. Be here at eight o'clock this evening. Come
quite alone to the side-door, and tap four times softly. My trusty
man will admit you. The occasion is an important one. Prepare
yourself for a solemn ceremony, which I wish to have performed while
it lies in my power.

VON XANTEN.



CHAPTER XI



Margery's face flushed up, and her neck and arms glowed in sympathy.
The quickness of youthful imagination, and the assumptiveness of
woman's reason, sent her straight as an arrow this thought: 'He
wants to marry me!'

She had heard of similar strange proceedings, in which the orange-
flower and the sad cypress were intertwined. People sometimes wished
on their death-beds, from motives of esteem, to form a legal tie
which they had not cared to establish as a domestic one during their
active life.

For a few minutes Margery could hardly be called excited; she was
excitement itself. Between surprise and modesty she blushed and