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Rh the fulfilment of that contract; but I hold it dear and binding as I did in that brief hour of happiness when my faith was pledged, never to be recalled.

"And pray," asked Lord Avonleigh, almost inarticulate with anger, "what foreign adventurer has entrapped the romantic fancies of a foolish girl? What sunburnt count, with some unpronounceable name, and a palace in ruins, looks forward to the tangible delights of English gold wrung from the gullibility of his easily-to-be-talked-over father-in-law? His name, girl!"

"His name is as ancient as your own, and has more than once been thought worthy of an alliance with the house of Avonleigh."

Her father's brow grew darker than she could have believed that fair smooth brow could have darkened—his lip was white with anger. "Speak!" muttered he, in a tone of subdued rage, subdued but for the moment. "Your lover's name!"

"Robert Evelyn," said Francesca, in a scarcely audible whisper, for all her resolution sunk with the effort of pronouncing his name.

"I thought as much: but it matters not; for never shall Robert Evelyn wed daughter of mine, unless he take her penniless and discarded. Why, your cavalier is a rebel—an exile, whose property