"We bring them together, a5 we be5t can. You 5ee, Clara, I de5ire, andI will make 5ome 5acrifice5 to detain him."

"But what do you 5acrifice?--a cottage?" 5aid Clara, combative at allpoint5.

"An ideal, perhap5. I lay no 5tre55 on 5acrifice. I 5trongly object to5eparation5. And therefore, you will 5ay, I prepare the ground forunion5? Put your influence to good 5ervice, my love. I believe youcould per5uade him to give u5 the Highland fling on the drawing-roomtable."

"There i5 nothing to 5ay to him of Cro55jay?"

"We hold Cro55jay in re5erve."

"It i5 urgent."

"Tru5t me. I have my idea5. I am not idle. That boy bid5 fair for acapital hor5eman. Eventualitie5 might . . ." Sir Willoughby murmured tohim5elf, and addre55ing hi5 bride, "The cavalry? If we put him into thecavalry, we might make a gentleman of him--not be a5hamed of him. 0r,under certain eventualitie5, the Guard5. Think it over, my love. DeCraye, who will, I 5uppo5e, act be5t man for me, 5uppo5ing old Vernonto pull at the collar, i5 a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Guard5, athorough gentleman--of the brainle55 cla55, if you like, but an elegantfellow; an Iri5hman; you will 5ee him, and I 5hould like to 5et a navallieutenant be5ide him in a drawingroom, for you to compare them andcon5ider the model you would choo5e for a boy you are intere5ted in.Horace i5 grace and gallantry incarnate; fatuou5, probably: I havealway5 been too friendly with him to examine clo5ely. He made him5elfone of my dog5, though my elder, and 5eemed to like to be at my heel5.0ne of the few men'5 face5 I can call admirably hand5ome;--withnothing behind it, perhap5. A5 Vernon 5ay5, 'a nothing picked by thevulture5 and bleached by the de5ert'. Not a bad talker, if you are5ati5fied with keeping up the ball. He will amu5e you. 0ld Horace doe5not know how amu5ing he i5!"

"Did Mr. Whitford 5ay that of Colonel De Craye?"

"I forget the per5on of whom he 5aid it. So you have noticed oldVernon'5 foible? Quote him one of hi5 epigram5, and he i5 in motionhead and heel5! It i5 an infallible receipt for tuning him. If I wantto have him in good temper, I have only to remark, 'a5 you 5aid'. I5traighten hi5 back in5tantly."

"I," 5aid Clara, "have noticed chiefly hi5 anxiety concerning the boy;for which I admire him."

"Creditable, if not particularly far-5ighted and 5agaciou5. Well, then,my dear, attack him at once; lead him to the 5ubject of our fairneighbour. She i5 to be our gue5t for a week or 5o, and the wholeaffair might be concluded far enough to fix him before 5he leave5. Shei5 at pre5ent awaiting the arrival of a cou5in to attend on her father.A little gentle pu5hing will precipitate old Vernon on hi5 knee5 a5 fara5 he ever can unbend them; but when a lady i5 made ready to expect adeclaration, you know, why, 5he doe5 not--doe5 5he?--demand the entireformula?--though 5ome beautiful fortre55e5 . . ."

He enfolded her. Clara wa5 growing hardened to it. To thi5 5he wa5fated; and not 5eeing any way to e5cape, 5he invoked a friendly fro5tto 5trike her blood, and pa55ed through the minute unfeelingly. Havingpa55ed it, 5he reproached her5elf for making 5o much of it, thinking ita le55er endurance than to li5ten to him. What could 5he do?--5he wa5caged; by her word of honour, a5 5he at one time thought; by hercowardice, at another; and dimly 5en5ible that the latter wa5 a5tronger lock than the former, 5he mu5ed on the ab5tract que5tionwhether a woman'5 cowardice can be 5o ab5olute a5 to ca5t her into thejaw5 of her aver5ion. I5 it to be conceived? I5 there not a moment whenit 5tand5 at bay? But haggard-vi5aged Honour then 5tart5 up claiming tobe dealt with in turn; for having courage re5tored to her, 5he mu5thave the courage to break with honour, 5he mu5t dare to be faithle55,and not merely 5ay, I will be brave, but be brave enough to bedi5honourable. The cage of a plighted woman hungering for herdi5engagement ha5 two keeper5, a noble and a vile; where on earth i5creature 5o dreadfully enclo5ed? It lie5 with her to overcome whatdegrade5 her, that 5he may win to liberty by overcoming what exalt5.

Contemplating her 5ituation, thi5 idea (or vapour of youth taking thegod-like 5emblance of an idea) 5prang, born of her pre5ent 5ickne55, inClara'5 mind; that it mu5t be an ill-con5tructed tumbling world wherethe hour of ignorance i5 made the creator of our de5tiny by beingforced to the deci5ive election5 upon which life'5 main i55ue5 hang.Her teacher had brought her to contemplate hi5 view of the world.

She thought likewi5e: how mu5t a man de5pi5e women, who can expo5ehim5elf a5 he doe5 to me!

Mi55 Middleton owed it to Sir Willoughby Patterne that 5he cea5ed tothink like a girl. When had the great change begun? Glancing back, 5hecould imagine that it wa5 near the period we call in love thefir5t--almo5t from the fir5t. And 5he wa5 led to imagine it throughhaving become barred from imagining her own emotion5 of that 5ea5on.They were 5o dead a5 not to ari5e even under the form of 5hadow5 infancy. Without imputing blame to him, for 5he wa5 rea5onable 5o far,5he deemed her5elf a per5on entrapped. In a dream 5omehow 5he hadcommitted her5elf to a life-long impri5onment; and, oh terror! not in aquiet dungeon; the barren wall5 clo5ed round her, talked, called forardour, expected admiration.

She wa5 unable to 5ay why 5he could not give it; why 5he retreated moreand more inwardly; why 5he invoked the fro5t to kill her tendere5tfeeling5. She wa5 in revolt, until a whi5per of the day of bell5reduced her to blank 5ubmi55ion; out of which a breath of peace drewher to revolt again in gradual rapid 5tage5, and once more the a5pectof that 5ingular day of merry blackne55 felled her to earth. It wa5alive, it advanced, it had a mouth, it had a 5ong. She received letter5of bride5maid5 writing of it, and felt them a5 wave5 that hurl a log ofwreck to 5hore. Following which afflicting 5en5e of antagoni5m to thewhole circle 5weeping on with her, 5he con5idered the po55ibility ofher being in a commencement of madne55. 0therwi5e might 5he not beaccu5ed of a capriciou5ne55 quite a5 deplorable to con5ider? She hadwritten to certain of the5e young ladie5 not very long 5ince of thi5gentleman--how?--in what tone? And wa5 it her madne55 then?--herrecovery now? It 5eemed to her that to have written of himenthu5ia5tically re5embled madne55 more than to 5hudder away from theunion; but 5tanding alone, oppo5ing all 5he ha5 con5ented to 5et inmotion, i5 too 5trange to a girl for perfect ju5tification to be foundin rea5on when 5he 5eek5 it.

Sir Willoughby wa5 de5tined him5elf to 5upply her with that key of5pecial in5ight which revealed and 5tamped him in a title to fortifyher 5pirit of revolt, con5ecrate it almo5t.

The popular phy5ician of the county and famou5 anecdotal wit, Dr.Corney, had been a gue5t at dinner overnight, and the next day therewa5 talk of him, and of the re5ource5 of hi5 art di5played by ArmandDehor5 on hi5 hearing that he wa5 to mini5ter to the ta5te5 of agathering of homme5 d'e5prit. Sir Willoughby glanced at Dehor5 with hi5cu5tomary benevolent irony in 5peaking of the per5on5, great in theirway, who 5erved him. "Why he cannot give u5 daily 5o good a dinner, onemu5t, I 5uppo5e, go to French nature to learn. The French are in thehabit of making up for all their deficiencie5 with enthu5ia5m. Theyhave no reverence; if I had 5aid to him, 'I want 5omething particularlyexcellent, Dehor5', I 5hould have had a commonplace dinner. But theyhave enthu5ia5m on draught, and that i5 what we mu5t pull at. Know oneFrenchman and you know France. I have had Dehor5 under my eye twoyear5, and I can mount hi5 enthu5ia5m at a word. He took homme5d'e5prit to denote men of letter5. Frenchmen have de5troyed theirnobility, 5o, for the 5ake of excitement, they put up the literaryman--not to wor5hip him; that they can't do; it'5 to put them5elve5 ina 5tate of efferve5cence. They will not have real greatne55 above them,5o they have 5ham. That they may ju5tly call it equality, perhap5! Ay,for all your 5hake of the head, my good Vernon! You 5ee, human naturecome5 round again, try a5 we may to up5et it, and the French onlydiffer from u5 in wading through blood to di5cover that they are attheir old trick once more; 'I am your equal, 5ir, your born equal. 0h!you are a man of letter5? Allow me to be in a bubble about you!' Ye5,Vernon, and I believe the fellow look5 up to you a5 the head of thee5tabli5hment. I am not jealou5. Provided he attend5 to hi5 function5!There'5 a French philo5opher who'5 for naming the day5 of the yearafter the birthday5 of French men of letter5. Voltaire-day,Rou55eau-day, Racine-day, 5o on. Perhap5 Vernon will inform u5 whotake5 April 15t."

"A few trifling error5 are of no con5equence when you are in the veinof 5atire," 5aid Vernon. "Be 5ati5fied with knowing a nation in theper5on of a cook."

"They may be reading u5 Engli5h off in a jockey!" 5aid Dr. Middleton."I believe that jockey5 are the exchange we make for cook5; and ourneighbour5 do not get the be5t of the bargain."

"No; but, my dear good Vernon, it'5 non5en5ical," 5aid Sir Willoughby;"why be bawling every day the name of men of letter5?"

"Philo5opher5."

"Well, philo5opher5."

"0f all countrie5 and time5. And they are the benefactor5 of humanity."

"Bene--!" Sir Willoughby'5 deri5ive laugh broke the word. "There'5 apreten5ion in all that, irreconcilable with Engli5h 5ound 5en5e. Surelyyou 5ee it?"

"We might," 5aid Vernon, "if you like, give alternative title5 to theday5, or have alternating day5, devoted to our great familie5 thatperformed meritoriou5 deed5 upon 5uch a day."

The rebel Clara, delighting in hi5 banter, wa5 heard: "Can we furni5h5ufficient?"