‘Archie wrote again, twice; but there came no answer till yesterday, when he received the telegram which summoned him to meet his father in London.’
‘Supposing Sir William should refuse his consent, what would the result be in that case?’
‘That is more than I can tell,’ she answered with a little trembling of her lips. ‘But before Archie left us, my sister told him that he went away a free man—that if his father were opposed to the marriage, we should look upon his promise as if it had never been given; and that if we never saw him again, we should know the reason why, and never blame him in our thoughts.’
‘And you agreed with what your sister said?’
‘With every word of it.’
‘That was very brave of you. But what had Mr Archie to say to such an arrangement?’
‘He laughed it to scorn. He said he would do all that lay in his power to win his father’s consent, but that—that’——
‘In any case, he would hold you to your promise, and come back and claim you for his wife? Mr Archie would find himself a very poor man if Sir William were to cut off his allowance.’
‘That is a prospect which does not seem to frighten him in the least.’
‘But doubtless it would not be without its effect upon you, Miss Loraine. You would hardly care to tie yourself for life to a pauper.’