and an advantage, even when he doesn’t go about with me; and as to keeping up the delusion, as you call it, in my own family, I have found that to be absolutely necessary, at least for the present.  My aunt, even when I was a little girl, determined to take my marriage into her own hands; and since I have returned to her, this desire has come up again in the most astonishing way.  It is her principal subject of conversation with me.  Were it not for the protection which my dear Freddy Null gives me I should be thrown bodily into the arms of the person whom my aunt has selected, and he would be obliged to take me, whether he wanted to or not, or be cast forth forever.  So you see how important it is that my aunt should think I am married; and I do hope you will not tell anybody about Mr Null.”

“Of course I will keep your secret,” said Croft.  “You may rely upon that; but don’t you think—­do you believe that this sort of thing is altogether right?”

She did not answer for a few moments, and then she said:  “I suppose you must consider me a very deceptive sort of person, but you should remember that these things were not done for my own good, and, as far as I can see, they were the only things that could be done.  Do you suppose I was going to let you pounce down on my cousin and do him some injury, for, as you kept your object such a secret, I did not suppose it could be anything but an injury you intended him.”

“A fine opinion of me!” said Croft.

“And then, do you suppose,” she continued, “that I would allow my aunt to quarrel with Junius and disinherit him, as she says she will, should he decline to marry me.  I expected to drop my married name when I came here, but I had not been with my aunt fifteen minutes before I saw that it would never do for me to be a single woman while I stayed with her; and so I kept my Freddy by me.  I did not intend, at all, to tell you all these things about my cousin, and I only did it because I did not wish you to think that I was a sly, mean creature, deceiving others for my own good.”

“Well,” said Croft, “although I can’t say you are right in making your relatives believe you are married when you are not, still I see you had very fair reasons for what you did, and you certainly showed a great deal of ingenuity and pluck in carrying out your remarkable schemes.  By-the-way,” he continued, somewhat hesitatingly, “I am in your debt for your services to me.”

“Not a bit of it!” she exclaimed quickly.  “I never did a thing for you.  It was all for myself, or, rather, for my cousin.  The only money due was that which you paid to Mr Candy before I took charge of the matter.”  Lawrence felt that this was rather a sore subject with his companion, and he dropped it.  “Do you still hold the position of cashier in the Information Shop?”

“No,” she said.  “When I started out on my lonely wedding tour I gave up that, and if I should go back to New York, I do not think I should want to take it again.”.