Yes. Your acknowledgment, in Fanny's name, when you are writing to
Mr. Lyon, will be all that he has a right to expect, and all that
our daughter should be permitted to give."

"But if we restrict her to so cold a response, and that by
second-hand, may she not be tempted to write to him without our
knowledge?"

"No, Edward. I will trust her for that," was the unhesitating
answer.

"She is very young," said Mr. Markland, as if speaking to himself.

"Oh, yes!" quickly returned his wife. "Years too young for an
experience--or, I might say, a temptation--like this. I cannot but
feel that, in writing to our child, Mr. Lyon abused the hospitality
we extended to him."

"Is not that a harsh judgment, Agnes?"

"No, Edward. Fanny is but a child, and Mr. Lyon a man of mature
experience. He knew that she was too young to be approached as he
approached her."

"He left it with us, you know, Agnes; and with a manly delicacy that
we ought neither to forget nor fail to appreciate."

The remark silenced, but in no respect changed the views of Mrs.
Markland; and the conference on Fanny's state of mind closed without
any satisfactory result.