given to you. It is this,--that if you will send him word to come
again, he will be here by Twelfth-night. He came before on my
invitation, but if he returns it must be on yours."

"Oh, papa, I cannot."

"I do not say that you can, but think of it calmly before you
altogether refuse. You shall give me your answer on New Year's
morning."

"Mamma knows that it would be impossible," said Bessy.

"Not impossible, dearest."

"In such a matter you should do what you believe to be right," said
her father.

"If I were to ask him here again, it would be telling him that I
would--"

"Exactly, Bessy. It would be telling him that you would be his
wife. He would understand it so, and so would your mother and I.
It must be so understood altogether."

"But, papa, when we were at Liverpool--"

"I have told him everything, dearest," said Mrs. Garrow.

"I think I understand the whole," said the Major; "and in such a
matter as this I will not give you counsel on either side. But you