"I beg your pardon, but you don't, my dear, as I will prove in five minutes, if you will give me your attention."
The major looked as if braced up to some momentous undertaking; and planting himself before the two young ladies, dashed bravely into the subject.
"Girls, I've played a bold game, but I've won it, and will take the consequences."
"They will fall heaviest on you, uncle," said Helen, thinking he was about to declare his love for the widow.
The major laughed, shrugged his shoulders, and answered, stoutly,—
"I'll bear them; but you are quite wrong, my dear, in your surmises, as you will soon see. Helen is my ward, and accountable to me alone. Amy's mother gave her into my charge, and won't reproach me for anything that has passed when I explain matters. As to the lads they must take care of themselves."
Suddenly both girls colored, fluttered, and became intensely interested. The major's eyes twinkled as he assumed a perfectly impassive expression, and rapidly delivered himself of the following thunderbolt,—
"Girls, you have been deceived, and the young men you love are impostors."
"I thought so," muttered Helen, grimly.
"Oh, uncle, don't, don't say that!" cried Amy, despairingly.