It baffled him, for a time. He could, and he meant, to withhold the
lover's letter from his sister's eyes. He could--and upon this also
he was determined--command her, in the masterful manner that
heretofore had never failed to work submission, never to meet,
speak, or write again to the man he almost hated; will her to forget
her childish fancy for his handsome face and glozing arts, and in
the fulness of time, to bestow her in marriage upon a partner of his
own providing. He had no misgivings as to his ability to accomplish
all this, if the blackguard aforesaid could be kept out of her way
until that remedial agent, Time, and lawful authority had a chance
to do their work.

But he was openly defied to prevent communication between the
betrothed pair, unless his injunction had Mabel's endorsement; and,
upon alighting from the stage at the village, on his return to
Ridgeley, he had taken from the post-office, along with the
impertinent missive addressed to himself, one for Mabel,
superscribed by the same hand. From the first, he had no intention
of transferring it to the keeping of the proper owner, It was
forwarded in direct disobedience to his commands, and the writer
should be made to understand the futility of opposition to these.
For several hours, his only purpose respecting it was to enclose it,
unopened, in an envelope directed by himself, and send it back to
the audacious author, by the next mail. He was balked in this
project by no fastidious scruples as to his right thus to dispose of
his ward's property. Nature, or what he assumed was natural
affection, concurred with duty in urging him to hinder an alliance
by which Mabel's happiness would be imperilled and her relatives
scandalized. But when, in the solitude of his study, he vouchsafed a
second reading to Frederic's letter, preparatory to the response he