"I am no rascal, sir," said Shawe, spiritedly.
"Yes, you are. You know that I don't wish my daughter to marry you, and yet you arrange secret meetings in the Gardens."
"I am to blame, if anyone," said Audrey, hotly, "for I arranged the meeting."
"A pretty confession for a young lady," said her father, grimly; "but I shall take care that you arrange no more. As for you, sir"--he turned on Ralph--"I forbid you to think of Miss Branwin. She is to marry Lord Anvers."
"I shall not," cried Audrey, growing white, but perfectly determined.
"You shall. I have spoken to Lord Anvers, and he is willing to make you his wife. You understand, Mr. Shawe?"
"I understand that I intend to marry Audrey," said the barrister, coolly, "so it matters little what arrangements you have made with Anvers, who is indeed the rascal you called me."
"Go inside, Audrey," said Branwin, and pushed his daughter within the gates hurriedly. "Mr. Shawe, good-day!" and he also stalked in, without commenting on the young man's speech.
Ralph thus Was left outside, like the Peri at the Gates of Paradise.
Between her father and Mrs. Mellop Audrey had a most unpleasant time for the next two weeks. Sir Joseph was more bent than ever upon her marriage with Lord Anvers, and asked him to dinner, so that he might prosecute his suit. The proposed suitor was a pale-faced, sandy-haired, insignificant little man, with a pair of wicked-looking black eyes. At the first sight people never took Anvers to be the strong man he really was, as they were deceived by his uninteresting looks. But his eyes, and subsequently his acts, soon showed him in his true light as a capable little scoundrel, who extracted all he could from anyone and anything in order to benefit himself. Just now Anvers, being desperately hard up, decided that it was necessary for him to marry Audrey and Audrey's dowry. He wanted the money more than the maid, but, seeing that she was pretty, he was not unwilling to take the two together, even though this meant the loss of his freedom.
Audrey took a violent dislike to him. Even before he had been suggested to her as a possible husband she had never liked him, as there was an atmosphere of impurity about him which repelled her. But that he should seek to be her husband made her more active in her dislike, and when he pressed his suit she told him plainly that she would never marry him. Lord Anvers, not being troubled with delicacy, simply laughed.