"I want to impress one thing upon you," said Adelaide to her brother;
"bear it always in mind. When you think you have made sufficient
advances in her favor to ask her to marry you, do not rest satisfied
with her spoken word, make her write it. It will be of no use to you
unless you do that."
"Explain a little further, my wisest of sisters," said Allan.
"A written promise of marriage is the only security a man has. Women
change like the wind, without rhyme or reason. But if you have her own
word pledged to you, her promise of marriage written so that there shall
be no mistake, then it will be worth a fortune to you."
"Even if she should refuse to fulfil"--
"You are not very worldly wise, Allan," said his sister with the
slightest tinge of contempt in her voice. "If she fulfils it, all well
and good. The very fact of having written it keeps a girl true when she
should otherwise be false. But if she refuses to keep it, the remedy
then is in your own hands."
"And that remedy is"--he began, but she interrupted him quickly.
"The remedy is, of course, an action at law; or what would be far more
efficacious in her case, holding her letters as a means of getting money
from her. A proud woman will sacrifice any amount of wealth rather than
have such a thing known."
Marion Arleigh fell easily into the plot laid by those she considered
her best friends.
CHAPTER VII.
It is not pleasant to trace the steps by which the simple credulous girl
fell into the snare laid for her.
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