THE BARONET'S DAUGHTER. 457 



" Come along, Sir, with me," said the baronet, " and I will now 

 the more readily hear your business, since I also have something for 

 your private ear. We will retire into my study, if you please." 



"Oh! go not with him, let me conjure you," cried the priest 

 rising, and grasping the arm of Willoughby. " Sir Robert Aylmer, 

 your son-in-law must never again be left alone with you." 



" As you please, gentlemen," said the baronet, sarcastically, " or 

 rather, as Mr. Courtenay pleases ; for he, it seems, is master here." 



" Oh ! no, no," exclaimed the priest in a tone of distressful depre- 

 cation, " it is not so, but Mr. Willoughby you must not go with Sir 

 Robert Aylmer, indeed you must not." 



" I fear him not," said Willoughby with an air of haughty defiance, 

 which, however, suddenly gave place to a look of mournful commi- 

 seration, and he gently lifted the hand of Courtenay from his arm. 

 " Sir Robert, I attend you." 



" You have no cause to fear me, Sir, now, in this house," said the 

 baronet, and he turned to Courtenay. " I give you my sacred word 

 that Mr. Willoughby is safe from me while he remains under my roof. 

 Come, Sir, I shall not detain you long. No further," he added, look- 

 ing round towards the priest who was about to follow. " I have 

 sworn that not a hair of his head shall be injured by me in this house." 

 So saying, he closed the door after Willoughby, and led the way to 

 the library. 



" Now, then, Sir, to the business at once," cried the baronet seat- 

 ing himself and pointing to a chair. "What have you to tell me?" 



" 1 will tell you in few words," replied Willoughby, " but first let 

 me beg of you that what I am about to do may be subject to no mis- 

 construction. I had hoped when I arrived here yesterday to have found 

 the temper and spirit in which you wrote to me at Paris, somewhat 

 assuaged and subdued. Had this happily been the case " 



"Oh! how little you knew me," interrupted the baronet with a 

 contemptuous smile. 



" Had this been the case," proceeded the other, " what I am now 

 about to propose to you would have been subject to a liberal inter- 

 pretation ; as it is, I feel that it will but create fresh surmises which, 

 hostile as you are to me, will operate to my prejudice. Neverthe- 

 less " 



" What are you aiming at ?" said the baronet, leaning back in his. 

 chair, " do you hope to deceive me by a new evasion ? do you think 

 to turn me round with some flourish of rhetoric ? Proceed, young 

 man." 



" At once," said Willoughby. " Sir Robert Aylmer, when I mar- 

 riecl your daughter, with that generous disinterestedness for which 

 you have ever been distinguished, you settled upon my late wife the 

 chief part of your property ; which property, in the event of her 

 demise, or failing issue was, after your death, to be mine." 



" Well, Sir, I did so," said the baronet, with a look of disgust, 

 " and what do you require more ? Will it please you to take the 

 whole of my property, and what annuity do you propose to allow me, 

 if I relinquish it at once, or have you mislaid the deed, and would 

 fain be presented with another ? what is it ? Tell me plainly." 



