I will not allow any one to be accused by one who dares stand here and deny his Maker; or publicly avow his disbelief in the Scriptures on which he is, as a witness, sworn.

down."

Stand

*

"Lord Keston," whispered Mr. Doyle, his face red in his irrepressible excitement, "is our witness able to appear?"

"Yes."

176

CHAPTER XV.

Then be not coy, but use your time;
And while ye may, go marry ;

For having lost but once your prime,

You may for ever tarry.

HERRICK.

HE soft grey haze of twilight was creeping

THE

slowly upwards, veiling sea and sky; and, through it the lights upon the pier at Worthing shone dim and blurred; while now and then the flash from the distant lighthouse pierced the mist, and then seemed to die out suddenly, as if its strength had been exhausted by that effort.

With the faint grey mingling of sea and sky before them; the long chain of lights upon the shore behind; and gay life and idleness about them; the groups lingered; talking, reading, or

thinking, upon the West Pier at Brighton. The bandsmen were silent just now in their little raised pavilion, and the great waste of chairs around them was almost unoccupied; yet there was a goodly crowd of figures moving to and fro in this evening hour.

Near the pier-head; where the gloom, so subtly creeping from the water, seemed to pause, as if the light and gaiety beyond had stayed it on its way inland; two little groups had met and joined, while many pairs of idle eyes rested upon them. Leaning back on her seat, facing the people, not the sea, Genevieve Foster sat, with a novel in her hands; but her eyes, though fixed upon its pages, had a sullen expression in them for which the novel could not be to blame. Near her, sitting sideways, with one elbow on the back of the seat, was Willoughby; his usually merry eyes full of perplexity, and his words breaking off every now and then in real and uncharacteristic embarrassment, as he sought to win his sister's whole attention. A few yards away, Mrs. Pennington walked slowly to and fro upon her husband's arm; and following them came Mrs. Foster and Celia, talking cheerfully together. Will's eyes went a little further still, to where Nora stood very

VOL. III.

N

still against the outer edge of the pier, looking out across the dusky sea, with lovely dreaming eyes. He saw that others watched her too, and he smiled a little, knowing how unconscious she was of any admiring glances; but the smile was very short-lived, and swiftly his gaze grew anxious again, and returned to his sister's face.

"You don't help me at all, Gena," he fretted. "I certainly expected you would feel for mother, if not for me and yourself, and suggest some way of breaking it to her."

"If it is quite impossible for you to discuss Victoria's prospects, except in such a provokingly funereal tone," observed Genevieve, without glancing up, "pray don't discuss them at all, with anybody."

"But if you tell mother without preparation"

"How terrible it would be!" put in Miss Foster, with her supercilious smile. "How very terrible! Victoria has chosen her own husband (as any sensible girl would do), and married him without bridesmaids or cake! poor Willoughby, to have to break this terrible, overwhelming news to his poor mother!"

Oh,

"You put it kindly, I must say," Will

answered, angrily.

"No wonder I dread your telling mother, if that is how you look at it."

"Then how do you look at it?” she asked, in a scoffing tone; but her face grew a trifle paler as she spoke.

"How do I look at it?" echoed Will, indignantly. "Why, as anyone who has a grain of feeling in him—or of honour-must look at it. She knew right from wrong, and truth from falsehood. If she didn't at first know a gentleman from a sneak, she must now have known one from an unbeliever and a liar. And if she did not know how to act as a lady, she might at any rate have behaved with ordinary womanly reserve. Το think that my father's daughter should have joined that villain and married him-knowing what she must have known."

"If it has been an unwise step," observed Miss Foster, icily," she will suffer, not you."

"I declare," said Will, his subdued voice full of rage, "I'm tempted to think you have no heart at all. For pity's sake, leave it to me to tell my mother this miserable news. I detained you here to beg for your help and advice. I don't want either now."

"Then I have done you good," smiled Gena. "If you considered that you needed help in dis