"No: no buts. Either promise, or don't promise; but don't put in ifs and buts."
"But I must. There is aunt Tabitha."
"Aunt Tabitha be hanged! I beg your pardon; but she has always used you shamefully, bossing you round, and"—
"We agreed long ago," she interrupted, "not to discuss her."
"Very well. Only I wish you'd promise me."
"How can I, when I might not be able to keep my promise?"
"Good heavens, Ease!" he exclaimed, springing up, and pacing excitedly to and fro on the greensward. "It is enough to make a man go mad to hear you talk in that cold-blooded way about marrying Frank Breck. You can't marry him; and, what's more, you sha'n't marry him!"
"Hark!" she said.
They heard the sound of wheels, stopping immediately after upon the bridge, and then the voice of Burleigh Blood.