“Dear aunt—­I want you to speak to Lord Cashel.  When I was angry because I thought Frank didn’t come here as he might have done, I consented that my uncle should break off the match:  besides, then, you know, we should have had so little between us.  But I didn’t know then how well I loved him.  Indeed, indeed, aunt, I cannot bring my heart to quarrel with him; and I am quite, quite sure he would never wish to quarrel with me.  Will you go to my uncle—­tell him that I’ve changed my mind; tell him that I was a foolish girl, and did not know my mind.  But tell him I must be friends with Frank again.”

“Well, of course I’ll do what you wish me,—­indeed, I would do anything for you, Fanny, as if you were one of my own; but really, I don’t know—­Good gracious!  What am I to say to him?  Wouldn’t it be better, Fanny, if you were to go to him yourself?”

“Oh, no, aunt; pray do you tell him first.  I couldn’t go to him; besides, he would do anything for you, you know.  I want you to go to him—­do, now, dear aunt—­and tell him—­not from me, but from yourself—­how very, very much I—­that is, how very very—­but you will know what to say; only Frank must, must come back again.”

“Well, Fanny, dear, I’ll go to Lord Cashel; or, perhaps, he wouldn’t mind coming here.  Ring the bell for me, dear.  But I’m sure he’ll be very angry.  I’d just write a line and ask Lord Ballindine to come and dine here, and let him settle it all himself, only I don’t think Lord Cashel would like it.”

Griffiths answered the summons, and was despatched to the book-room to tell his lordship that her ladyship would be greatly obliged if he would step upstairs to her for a minute or two; and, as soon as Griffiths was gone on her errand, Fanny fled to her own apartment, leaving her aunt in a very bewildered and pitiable state of mind:  and there she waited, with palpitating heart and weeping eyes, the effects of the interview.

She was dreadfully nervous, for she felt certain that she would be summoned before her uncle.  Hitherto, she alone, in all the house, had held him in no kind of awe; indeed, her respect for her uncle had not been of the most exalted kind; but now she felt she was afraid of him.

She remained in her room much longer than she thought it would have taken her aunt to explain what she had to say.  At last, however, she heard footsteps in the corridor, and Griffiths knocked at the door.  Her aunt would be obliged by her stepping into her room.  She tried not to look disconcerted, and asked if Lord Cashel were still there.  She was told that he was; and she felt that she had to muster up all her courage to encounter him.

When she went into the room, Lady Cashel was still in her easy-chair, but the chair seemed to lend none of its easiness to its owner.  She was sitting upright, with her hands on her two knees, and she looked perplexed, distressed, and unhappy.  Lord Cashel was standing with his back to the fire-place, and Fanny had never seen his face look so black.  He really seemed, for the time, to have given over acting, to have thrown aside his dignity, and to be natural and in earnest.