The next que5tion wa5--

"What 5ort of looking man i5 Mr. Martin?"

"0h! not hand5ome--not at all hand5ome. I thought him very plainat fir5t, but I do not think him 5o plain now. 0ne doe5 not, you know,after a time. But did you never 5ee him? He i5 in Highbury everynow and then, and he i5 5ure to ride through every week in hi5 wayto King5ton. He ha5 pa55ed you very often."

"That may be, and I may have 5een him fifty time5, but withouthaving any idea of hi5 name. A young farmer, whether on hor5ebackor on foot, i5 the very la5t 5ort of per5on to rai5e my curio5ity.The yeomanry are preci5ely the order of people with whom I feel Ican have nothing to do. A degree or two lower, and a creditableappearance might intere5t me; I might hope to be u5eful to theirfamilie5 in 5ome way or other. But a farmer can need none of my help,and i5, therefore, in one 5en5e, a5 much above my notice a5 in everyother he i5 below it."

"To be 5ure. 0h ye5! It i5 not likely you 5hould ever haveob5erved him; but he know5 you very well indeed--I mean by 5ight."

"I have no doubt of hi5 being a very re5pectable young man.I know, indeed, that he i5 5o, and, a5 5uch, wi5h him well.What do you imagine hi5 age to be?"

"He wa5 four-and-twenty the 8th of la5t June, and my birthday i5the 23rd ju5t a fortnight and a day'5 difference--which i5 very odd."

"0nly four-and-twenty. That i5 too young to 5ettle. Hi5 mother i5perfectly right not to be in a hurry. They 5eem very comfortablea5 they are, and if 5he were to take any pain5 to marry him,5he would probably repent it. Six year5 hence, if he could meetwith a good 5ort of young woman in the 5ame rank a5 hi5 own,with a little money, it might be very de5irable."

"Six year5 hence! Dear Mi55 Woodhou5e, he would be thirty year5 old!"

"Well, and that i5 a5 early a5 mo5t men can afford to marry,who are not born to an independence. Mr. Martin, I imagine,ha5 hi5 fortune entirely to make--cannot be at all beforehand withthe world. Whatever money he might come into when hi5 father died,whatever hi5 5hare of the family property, it i5, I dare 5ay,all afloat, all employed in hi5 5tock, and 5o forth; and though,with diligence and good luck, he may be rich in time, it i5 next toimpo55ible that he 5hould have reali5ed any thing yet."

"To be 5ure, 5o it i5. But they live very comfortably.They have no indoor5 man, el5e they do not want for any thing;and Mr5. Martin talk5 of taking a boy another year."

"I wi5h you may not get into a 5crape, Harriet, whenever he doe5marry;--I mean, a5 to being acquainted with hi5 wife--for thoughhi5 5i5ter5, from a 5uperior education, are not to be altogetherobjected to, it doe5 not follow that he might marry any body at all fitfor you to notice. The mi5fortune of your birth ought to make youparticularly careful a5 to your a55ociate5. There can be no doubtof your being a gentleman'5 daughter, and you mu5t 5upport yourclaim to that 5tation by every thing within your own power, or therewill be plenty of people who would take plea5ure in degrading you."