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Elysia spoke haltingly, puzzled by her aunt's odd statement. "Have you found me a position of some sort?"
    "Oh, yes, indeed I have. One you should find most interesting-and rewarding," her aunt crooned. , "You do remember that I said I met Squire Masters on my way to the village?"
    "What has he to do with it?'" Elysia asked, thinking that maybe she had misjudged Aunt Agatha after all. Then a sudden thought struck her, and she asked anxiously, "It is not a position with the Squire, is it?'"
    "Oh, no, my dear Elysia," her aunt chuckled gleefully, showing the first hint of humor Elysia had ever seen on her face. "It is not some lowly position in the Squire's household that I have accepted on your behalf, but—" she paused dramatically, an inner light brightening her eyes, "—the envied position as the wife of Squire Masters."

 
    Can I forget the dismal night that give
    My soul's best part forever to the grave?
                                                            Gray,
     
     
     
    Chapter 2
     
     
    “W ell, c an't you speak? Aren't you going to thank your dear Aunt Agatha for securing you a respectable future?" She watched Elysia's flushed cheeks blanch, leaving her face pale and drawn-looking; her eyes dark pools of despair as her lips began to tremble.
    Elysia sat dumbfounded as Agatha's face became contorted and her harsh laughter rang through the room. Agatha's head was thrown back as she shook with deranged mirth, her thin chest shaking uncontrollably.
    "We decided it, the Squire and myself, this afternoon on the road to the village," Agatha said breathlessly. "He was most anxious to come to an arrangement. You will find him to be a most attentive bridegroom, my dear. And being such a healthy young girl, you should provide Squire Masters with the sons he has longed for."
    Agatha stared at Elysia as her hand nervously smoothed her hair in the tight bun and she added almost to herself, "You're such a beautiful girl, too—just like your mother was. I remember the first day that I saw her; she was just a child, but so beautiful—even then."
    Elysia stared in horror at Aunt Agatha. She finally gained control of herself, but her voice sounded strained; the words coming jerkily from between her thin lips.
    "I cannot possibly marry the Squire," Elysia said clearly to her aunt, despite her pounding heart This could not be happening to her, she thought in desperation. Squire Masters! Neverl She would rather die than be married to him.
    "You have no choice, my dear Elysia. It has all been arranged."
    "I will not marry him, and you cannot make me! Don't you understand that I can't stand him. I'm repulsed by him—to be married to him would be torture."
    Elysia rose from' her chair, and the words tumbled out emotionally as she pleaded with her aunt. But her aunt was unyielding.
    "Your feelings do not enter into this at all. You should be thankful to have this opportunity for marriage. Your prospects are not good, but Squire Masters has agreed to overlook your poverty, and forget the usually expected dowry," Agatha said impatiently, her previous good humor forgotten in the face of Elysia's defiance.
    "I am afraid that you will have to send my regrets to the Squire, because it is out of the question that I could, or would, ever marry him. You never even consulted me as to my wishes--why, the Squire is old enough to be my father!"
    Elysia looked at' her aunt curiously. "This is what you have wanted all along . . . to humiliate me. Well, you won't succeed this time, Aunt Agatha, just as you didn't succeed this afternoon when you purposely sent me to the North field."
    Agatha rose and faced Elysia, digging her hard fingers into Elysia's shoulders as she glared viciously at her.
    "Do you think I will let the likes of you ruin all my plans!" Agatha shrieked. "I have finally realized my greatest wish—and you will not interfere. Do you hear me?" She shook Elysia until her