"Do you?--what, immediately?"

"Yes."

"Well--what is it?--your Slingsby property, I suppose."

"No, my dear father--pray sit down and hear me patiently."

Lord Saxingham began to be both alarmed and curious--he seated himself
in silence, and looked anxiously in the face of his daughter.

"You have always been very indulgent to me," commenced Florence, with a
half smile, "and I have had my own way more than most young ladies.
Believe me, my dear father. I am most grateful not only for your
affection but your esteem. I have been a strange wild girl, but I am
now about to reform; and as the first step, I ask your consent to give
myself a preceptor and a guide--"

"A what!" cried Lord Saxingham.

"In other words, I am about to--to--well, the truth must out--to marry."

"Has the Duke of ------ been here to-day?"

"Not that I know of. But it is no duke to whom I have promised my
hand--it is a nobler and rarer dignity that has caught my ambition. Mr.
Maltravers has--"

"Mr. Maltravers!--Mr. Devil!--the girl's mad!--don't talk to me, child,