“No, I will never defy my mother; there are other ways of doing things; I must marry Nora, and we must keep the affair quiet for a time.”

“I do not understand you,” said Hannah coldly.

“Nora does, though!  Do you not, my darling?” exclaimed Herman triumphantly.

And the blushing but joyous face of Nora answered him.

“You say you will not defy your mother.  Do you mean then to deceive her, Mr. Brudenell?” inquired the elder sister severely.

“Hannah, don’t be abusive!  This is just the whole matter, in brief.  I am twenty-one, master of myself and my estate.  I could marry Nora at any time, openly, without my mother’s consent.  But that would give her great pain.  It would not kill her, nor make her ill, but it would wound her in her tenderest points—­her love of her son, and her love of rank; it would produce an open rupture between us.  She would never forgive me, nor acknowledge my wife.”

“Then why do you speak at all of marrying Nora?” interrupted Hannah angrily.

Herman turned and looked at Nora.  That mute look was his only answer, and it was eloquent; it said plainly what his lips forbore to speak:  “I have won her love, and I ought to marry her; for if I do not, she will die.”

Then he continued as if Hannah had not interrupted him: 

“I wish to get on as easily as I can between these conflicting difficulties.  I will not wrong Nora, and I will not grieve my mother.  The only way to avoid doing either will be for me to marry my darling privately, and keep the affair a secret until a fitting opportunity offers to publish it.”

“A secret marriage!  Mr. Brudenell! is that what you propose to my sister?”

“Why not, Hannah?”

“Secret marriages are terrible things!”

“Disappointed affections, broken hearts, early graves, are more terrible.”

“Fudge!” was the word that rose to Hannah’s lips, as she looked at the young man; but when she turned to her sister she felt that his words might be true.

“Besides, Hannah,” he continued, “this will not be a secret marriage.  You cannot call that a secret which will be known to four persons—­the parson, you, Nora, and myself.  I shall not even bind you or Nora to keep the secret longer than you think it her interest to declare it.  She shall have the marriage certificate in her own keeping, and every legal protection and defense; so that even if I should die suddenly—­”

Nora gasped for breath.

—­“she would be able to claim and establish her rights and position in the world.  Hannah, you must see that I mean to act honestly and honorably,” said the young man, in an earnest tone.

“I see that you do; but, Mr. Brudenell, it appears to me that the fatal weakness of which you have already spoken to me—­the ’propensity to please’—­is again leading you into error.  You wish to save Nora, and you wish to spare your mother; and to do both these things, you are sacrificing—­”