“‘Edward,’ said Lottie, as she cast one of her peculiarly sweet smiles on me, ‘did you ever read Dickens on the circumlocution office?’
“‘Yes,’ I replied.
“‘Very well, then you will understand my meaning when I tell you I have started a circumlocution office of my own.’
“‘How is that?’
“‘Mr. Anterson steals ten thousand dollars from Mrs. McCay, and gives Mr. Rockland part of the money to keep him (Anterson) out of the penitentiary; Mr. Rockland gives me the money, I purchase provisions with it, and deliver them to Mrs. McCay.’
“‘That is circumlocution double and twisted!’
“We then took leave of the family who had been made happy by Lottie’s bounty, and drove home. I attempted to embrace Lottie as I assisted her from the carriage.
“‘Stop, sir!’ she said, ‘remember the terms of our compact—no love demonstrations until Viola is clear!’
CHAPTER XXXIII.
“At length the long expected day arrived, the time to which I had been looking forward with a mind crowded with hope and anxiety; the day which was to settle the fate of Miss Bramlett, as well as my own, for Lottie had suffered herself to become so completely entangled with Viola’s affairs that no power could separate them.