"Certainly not," returned Victor, a meaning smile curling his lip,
"if both are satisfied, I ought to be. When is the wedding?"

He asked this last with an appearance of interest, and Richard,
ever ready to forgive and forget, told him all about it, who Edith
was, and sundry other matters, to which Victor listened as
attentively as if he had not heard the whole before. Like Edith,
Richard was in the habit of talking to Victor more as if he were
an equal than a servant and in speaking of his engagement, he
said,

"I had many misgivings as to the propriety of asking Edith to be
my wife--she is so young, so different from me, but my excuse is
that I cannot live without her. She never loved another, and thus
the chance is tenfold that she will yet be to me all that a
younger, less dependent husband could desire."

Victor bit his lip, half resolved one moment to undeceive poor
Richard, whom he pitied for his blind infatuation, but remembering
his promise, he held his peace, until his master signified that
the conference was ended, when he hastened to the barn, where he
could give vent to his feeling in French, his adopted language
being far too prosy to suit his excited mood. Suddenly Grace
Atherton came into his mind, and Edith's request that he should
tell her.

"Yes, I'll do it," he said, starting at once for Brier Hill "'Twill
be a relief to let another know it, and then I want to see her
squirm, when she hears all hope for herself is gone."