144 THEY ARE OFF.—THEY ARE MARRIED.

a fool the girl must be, if this be not a double-dyed
piece of artifice,” said he. ‘‘ And how famously you
have been imposed upon!”

With these words he left him, and Reynolds,
burning with indignation at what he felt to be his
cold-blooded pride, felt, nevertheless, an uncom-
fortable query in his own heart—‘ And can I, after
all, have been duped ?”

“No! no! no!” said every sense of honesty and
sincerity in his own breast. “As soon would I
disbelieve the sun in heaven as that girl.” He was
sure he was right, and, within half an hour, set off to
Mrs. Cope’s, to see both father and daughter. He was
bent upon obtaining from them such evidences as
Williams should not gainsay. He knew enough
of Williams to believe him capable of prevarication
and falsehood, but he had great faith also in the good
that was in him, and on that he resolved to work—in
the meantime he must see these two—he wanted to
see father and daughter together, to question and
cross-question, to know how they were in health, to
cheer up their spirits, in short, he was for the first
time in his life in love—he wanted to see his mistress,

Wiiliams on his part did not trouble himself about
them. He had plenty of business of other kinds on
his hands. He was busy about his marriage. He
wrote to his banker, to his lawyer, and to his tailor ;
there was a world of business to be done in the next
few days.

Great was Reynolds's astonishment, and almost
horror, when, on passing the little parlour window
at Mrs, Cope’s, he saw, instead of the miniatures, and
profiles, and pretty bags and rugs, which were usually
arranged there—two caps on wooden stands, and two