WYLDER'S HAjYD.
161
"I am very much obliged to you for all the trouble
you have taken. The measures which you have adopted
are, I think, most judicious; and I should not wish, on
consideration, to speak to any official person. I think it
better to trust entirely to the means you have already
employed. I do not desire to speculate as to the causes of
Wylder's extraordinary conduct; but, all the circumstan-
ces considered, I cannot avoid concluding, as you do, that
there must be some very serious reason for it. I enclose
a note, which, perhaps, you will be so good as to give him,
should you meet before you leave town."
"The note to Mark Wylder was in these terms: —
"Dear Wylder,— I had hoped to see you before now
at Brandon. Your unexplained absence longer continued,
you must see, will impose on me the necessity of offering
an explanation to Miss Brandon's friends, of the relations,
under these strange circumstances, in which you and she
are to be assumed to stand. You have accounted in no way
for your absence. You have not even suggested a post-
ponement of the day fixed for the completion of your
engagement to that young lady; and, as her guardian, I
cannot avoid telling her, should I fail to hear explicitly
from you within three days from this date, that she is at
liberty to hold herself acquitted of her engagement to you.
I do not represent to you how much reason every one
interested by relationship in that young lady has to feel
offended at the disrespect with which you have treated
her. Still hoping, however, that all may yet be explain-
ed,
"I remain, my dear Wylder, yours very truly,
"Chelford."
Lord Chelford had not opened the subject to Dorcas.