Mauleverer Manor?'

'I am going away,' she answered calmly. 'I have been expelled.'

'Ex--what?' roared Brian.

'I have been expelled--sent away at a minute's notice--for the
impropriety of my conduct in allowing you to talk to me in the
river-meadow.'

Brian had been fastening his boat to a pollard willow as he talked. He
leapt on to the bank, and came close to Ida's side.

'My darling, my dearest love, what a burning shame! What a villainous old
hag that Pew woman must be! Bessie told me she was a Tartar, but this
beats everything. Expelled! Your conduct impeached because you let me
talk to you--I, Bessie's cousin, a man who at the worst has some claim to
be considered a gentleman, while you have the highest claim to be
considered a lady. It is beyond all measure infamous.'

'It was rather hard, was it not?' said Ida quietly.

'Abominable, insufferable! I--well. I'll call upon the lady this
afternoon, and make her acquainted with my sentiments upon the subject.
The wicked old harridan.'

'Please don't,' urged Ida, smiling at his wrath; 'it doesn't give me any
consolation to hear you call her horrid names.'

'Did you tell her that I had asked you to be my wife?'