Now for the alternative.

What can it be ?" "Mrs.Melcombe can take Laura on the Continent again, and she proposed to do it forthwith." "And leave her boy at school?
A very good thing for him." "No, she means to take him also, and not come back till Joseph is at the other end of the world." "Two months will see him there." "Well, John, now you have stated the case, it does seem a strange fancy of mine to wish to interfere, and if to interfere could possibly be to our advantage----" "You would not have thought of it! No, I am sure of that.

Now my advice is, that we let them alone all round.

I don't believe, in the first place, that Joe Swan, now he has change, freedom, and a rise in life before him, would willingly marry Laura if he might.

I am not at all sure that, if it came to the point, she would willingly marry him at such short notice, and leave every friend she has in the world.