"Are you sure of that?"
"Sure? He said so; and shall I doubt his word?"
"Why then did he bring you here? Why did he not take you to Gretna?"
"Because he feared we might be pursued, and they would be sure to follow that route."
"Hm! Yes, it is possible. And till you are married?"
"I am to stay with an old lady—a relation of his. He will prepare her to receive me this morning."
He sighed. So strange is human nature, that the idea of Cecil behaving delicately and honourably in the transaction, was at first a disappointment and an additional grief to him! He could not bear to think his rival less contemptible than he had held him to be, nor could he with pleasure find that his own services were not needed. Blanche wanted no protector. Nevertheless, partly out of a lingering suspicion that all would not go on so smoothly as it promised, and partly from the very want he felt to consider himself of some use to his beloved Blanche, he refused entirely to credit her statement of Cecil's intentions, and declared that he would remain to watch.
"At any rate, allow me to give you away," he said, "I shall then be sure that all is right. Can you refuse me?"
She held out her hand to him by way of answer. He raised it respectfully to his lips, gazed sorrowfully at her, and withdrew.
When Cecil returned, and learned from her that the captain was in the same hotel, that he had seen Blanche, and that she had consented to his giving her away, he stormed with rage.