"I will not, my darling, if it be in reason," he replied.
"Earle told me that you and he had arranged our wedding-day for the tenth of August," she continued. "Dear papa, dear Lady Linleigh, I want you to promise that it shall be kept a profound secret from the whole world."
"My dear Doris!" cried the countess.
"It is quite impossible," said the earl. "Besides, I see no reason for such a thing. Why should you want it so?"
"It is possible," she said. "I have been with you long enough to know that with you everything is possible. Why I wish it done, is my whim, my folly—my secret, if you will."
"I really do not see——" began the earl; but she laid one soft, white hand on his lips.
"Let me show you, papa. Let me hear your objections, and vanquish them one by one."
"To begin with—your train of bridesmaids, they must be invited."
"Papa," she interrupted, "I want none, I will have none, only Mattie, my foster-sister—let her come, no one else."
"Then the marriage settlements?" said the perplexed earl.