erview. She
expressed her regret that things should be as they were,--explained
in sweetly innocent phrases that in a certain rank of life young
ladies could not always marry the gentlemen to whom their fancies
might attach them, but must, not unfrequently, postpone their
youthful inclinations to the will of their elders,--or in less
delicate language, that though they might love in one direction they
must marry in another; and then expressed a hope that her dear Mary
would think over these things and try to please her father. "Why does
he not try to please me?" said Mary. Then Lady Cantrip was obliged to
see Lord Popplecourt, a necessity which was a great nuisance to her.
"Yes;--she understands what you mean. But she is not prepared for it
yet. You must wait awhile."

"I don't see why I am to wait."

"She is very young,--and so are you, indeed. There is plenty of
time."

"There is somebody else I suppose."

"I told you," said Lady Cantrip, in her softest voice, "that there
has been a dream across her path."

"It's that Tregear!"

"I am not prepared to mention names," said Lady Cantrip, astonished
that he should know so much. "But indeed you must wait."

"I don't see it, Lady Cantrip."

"What can I say more? If you think that such a girl as Lady Mary
Palliser, the daughter of the Duke of Omnium, possessed of fortune,
beauty, and every good gift, is to come like a bird to your call, you
will find yourself mistaken. All that her friends can do for you will
be done. The rest must remain with yourself." During that evening
Lord Popplecourt endeavoured to make himself pleasant to one of the
FitzHoward young ladies, and on the next morning he took his leave of
Custins.

"I will never interfere again in reference to anybody else's child as
long as I live," Lady Cantrip said to her husband that night.

Lady Mary was very much tempted to open her heart to Miss Boncassen.
It would be delightful to her to have a friend; but were she to
engage Miss Boncassen's sympathies on her behalf, she must of course
sympathise with Miss Boncassen in return. And what if, after all,
Silverbridge were not devoted to the American beauty! What if it
should turn out that he was going to marry Lady Mabel Grex! "I
wish you would call me Isabel," her friend said to her. "It is so
odd,--since I have left New York I have never heard my name from any
lips except father's and mother's."

"Has not Silverbridge ever called you by your Christi