“Ah! you strong men can easily says so, but for us poor much-tried women!  However,” she said suddenly changing her tone, “Love has check-mated us, and I rejoice.  Your daughter will support the credit of the name!  I am glad the new Lady Belamour will not be that little termagant milkmaid Belle, whom circumstances compelled me to inflict upon my poor boy!  The title will be your daughter’s alone.  I have promised my husband that in the New World I will sink into plain Mrs. Wayland.”  Then with a burst of genuine feeling she exclaimed, “He is a good man, Harry.”

“He is indeed, Urania, I believe you will yet be happier than you have ever been.”

“What, among barbarians who never saw a loo-table, and get the modes three months too late!  And you are laughing at me, but see I am a poor frivolous being, not sufficient to myself like your daughters!  They say Aurelia was as sprightly as a spring butterfly all the time she was shut up at Bowstead with no company save the children and old Belamour!”

“They are lovely children, madam, Aurelia dotes on them, and you will soon find them all you need.”

“Their father is never weary of telling me so.  He is never so happy as when they hang about him and tell him of Cousin Aura, or Sister Aura as they love to call her.”

“It was charming to see them dance round her when he brought them to spend the day with her.  Mr. Wayland brought his good kinswoman, who will take charge of them on the voyage, and Aurelia was a little consoled at the parting by seeing how tender and kind she is with them.”

“Aye!  If I do not hate that woman it will be well, for she is as much a duenna for me as governess for the children!  Heigh-ho! what do not our follies bring on us?  We poor creatures should never be left to the great world.”

The pretty air of repentance was almost irresistible, well as the Major knew it for the mood of the moment, assumed as what would best satisfy him.

“I rejoice,” she went on, “in spite of my lovely daughter-in-law’s discretion, she will be well surrounded with guardians.  Has the excellent Betty consented?”

“At last, madam.  My persuasions were vain till she found that Mr. Belamour would gladly come with us to Austria, and that she should be enabled to watch over both her young sister and me.”

“There, again, I give myself credit, Harry.  Would the sacred flame ever have awakened in yonder misanthrope had I not sent your daughter to restore him to life?” She spoke playfully, but the Major could not help thinking she had persuaded herself that all his present felicity was owing to her benevolence, and that she would persuade him of it too, if she went on much longer looking at him so sweetly.  He would not tax her with the wicked note she had written to account for Mr. Belamour’s disappearance, and which she had forgotten; he felt that he could not impel one, whom he could not but still regard with tenderness, to utter any more untruths and excuses.