hat was done in a manner unsatisfactory to
Silverbridge. Wherever Isabel went, there Mrs. Boncassen went also.
There might have been some fun in showing even the back kitchens to
his bride-elect, by herself;--but there was none in wandering about
those vast underground regions with a stout lady who was really
interested with the cooking apparatus and the wash-houses. The
bedrooms one after another became tedious to him when Mrs. Boncassen
would make communications respecting each of them to her daughter.
"That is Gerald's room," said Silverbridge. "You have never seen
Gerald. He is such a brick." Mrs. Boncassen was charmed with the
whips and sticks and boxing-gloves in Gerald's room, and expressed
an opinion that young men in the States mostly carried their
knick-knacks about with them to the Universities. When she was told
that he had another collection of "knick-knacks" at Matching, and
another at Oxford, she thought that he was a very extravagant young
man. Isabel, who had heard all about the gambling in Scotland, looked
round at her lover and smiled.

"Well, my dear," said Mrs. Boncassen, as they took their leave, "it
is a very grand house, and I hope with all my heart you may have
your health there and be happy. But I don't know that you'll be any
happier because it's so big."

"Wait till you see Gatherum," said Silverbridge. "That, I own, does
make me unhappy. It has been calculated that three months at Gatherum
Castle would drive a philosopher mad."

In all this there had been a certain amount of disappointment for
Silverbridge; but on that evening, before dinner in Brook Street, he
received compensation. As the day was one somewhat peculiar in its
nature he decided that it should be kept altogether as a holiday, and
he did not therefore go down to the House. And not going to the House
of course he spent the time with the Boncassens. "You know you ought
to go," Isabel said to him when they found themselves alone together
in the back drawing-room.

"Of course I ought."

"Then go. Do you think I would keep a Briton from his duties?"

"Not though the constitution should fall in ruins. Do you suppose
that a man wants no rest after inspecting all the pots and pans in
that establishment? A woman, I believe, could go on doing that kind
of thing all day long."

"You should remember at least that the--woman was interesting herself
about your pots and pans."

"And now, Bella, tell me what the governor said to yo