see or hear from Captain Aylmer again.  Then to Captain Aylmer she wrote very shortly, but very openly with the same ill-judged candour which her spoken words to him had displayed.  Of course she would be his; his without hesitation, now that she knew that he expressed his own wishes, and not merely those of his aunt.  ’As to the money,’ she said, ’it would be simply nonsense now for us to have any talk of money.  It is yours in any way, and you had better manage about it as you please.  I have written an ambiguous letter to Mr Green, which will simply plague him, and which you may go and see if you like.’  Then she added her postscript, in which she said that she should now at once tell her father, as the news would remove from his mind all solicitude as to her future position.  That Captain Aylmer did go to Mr Green we already know, and we know also that he told Mr Green of his intended marriage.

Nothing was said by Captain Aylmer as to any proposed period for their marriage; but that was only natural.  It was not probable that any man would name a day till he knew whether or not he was accepted.  Indeed, Clara, on thinking over the whole affair, was now disposed to find fault rather with herself than with her lover, and forgetting his coldness and formality at Perivale, remembered only the fact of his offer to her, and his assurance now received that he had intended to make it before the scene which had taken place between him and his aunt.  She did find fault with herself, telling herself that she had quarrelled with him without sufficient cause and the eager loving candour of her letter to him was attributable to those self-accusations.

‘Papa,’ she said, after the postman had gone away from Belton, so that there might be no possibility of any recall of her letter, ’I have something to tell you which I hope will give you pleasure.’

‘It isn’t often that I hear anything of that kind,’ said he.

’But I think that this will give you pleasure.  I do indeed.  I am going to be married.’

‘Going to what?’

’Going to be married, papa.  That is, if I have your leave.  Of course any offer of that kind that I have accepted is subject to your approval.’

‘And I have been told nothing about it!’

’It began at Perivale, and I could not tell you then.  You do not ask me who is to be my husband.’

‘It is not Will Belton?’

’Poor Will!  No; it is not Will.  It is Frederic Aylmer.  I think you would prefer him as a son-in-law even to my Cousin Will.’

’No I shouldn’t.  Why should I prefer a man whom I don’t even know, who lives in London, and who will take you away, so that I shall never see you again?’

’Dear papa don’t speak of it in that way.  I thought you would be glad to know that I was to be so so so happy!’

’But why is it to be done this way of a sudden?  Why didn’t he come to me?  Will came to me the very first thing.’