Sibylla was thunderstruck: Miss Deborah and Miss Amilly gave vent to a few hysterical shrieks, and hinted about the wedding clothes and the outfit.

_That_ could be got together in a day, was the reply of Dr.West, and they were too much astonished to venture to say it could not.
"You told me to wait for Lionel Verner," whispered Sibylla, when she and her father were alone, as she stood before him, trembling.

In her mind's eye she saw Verner's Pride slipping from her; and it gave her chagrin, in spite of her love for Fred Massingbird.
Dr.West leaned forward and whispered a few words in her ear.

She started violently, she coloured crimson.

"Papa!" "It is true," nodded the doctor.
As Lionel passed the house on his way from Deerham Court to Verner's Pride, he turned into it, led by a powerful impulse.