"What is it, Guy? Why on earth did you contradict him?"
"I couldn't help it; he would have the truth. And there was no use in putting it off for a day or two. I have done for myself, Aymer. I am married,—to a German girl, little above a peasant. And you know best whether my father will ever forgive that!"
"Whew!" whistled Aymer. "What possessed you?"
"I don't know," was the dreary answer. "Poor little Elise! She deserved a better fate. Good-bye, Aymer; don't risk getting into a scrape by coming with me; good-bye, old fellow."
Aymer, however, insisted on walking with him until the carriage overtook them; and during that time he contrived to form a very true opinion of his brother's strange marriage. Elise was very pretty, very gentle, and very innocent, and she let the handsome, pleasant-mannered stranger see that she loved him; and Guy, always purposeless, was weak and ill, and let himself drift into an engagement.
"She could read and write," he said; "and her father gave her what he and all his neighbours considered an immense fortune!"
Five hundred pounds of our money is not, however, a large sum on which to begin the world, nor was Guy Egerton the man to make the most of it.
"He gave me this," Guy said, drawing out the note. "Take it back to him, Aymer. I won't have it."
"Nonsense! You have a journey before you, and you'll never get another penny from him, I'm afraid. Keep it, and I'll send you more as I can. Where is your wife?"
"In London. I must go back to her."