received a private offer which was in
every respect satisfactory.

Lady Mallow wished to spend some part of every year near her father and
mother, who lived a good deal at Ashbourne, the Duke becoming yearly
more devoted to his Chillingham oxen and monster turnips. Lord Mallow,
who loved his native isle to distraction, but always found six weeks in
a year a sufficient period of residence there, was delighted to please
his bride, and agreed to take Briarwood, furnished, on a seven-years'
lease. The orchid-houses were an irresistible attraction, and by this
friendly arrangement Lady Mallow would profit by the alterations and
improvements her cousin had made for her gratification, when he
believed she was to be his wife.

Briarwood thus disposed of, Rorie was free to consider the Abbey House
his future home; and Violet had the happiness of knowing that the good
old house in which her childhood had been spent would be her habitation
always, till she too was carried to the family vault under the old
yew-tree. There are people who languish for change, for whom the newest
is ever the best; but it was not thus with Violet Tempest. The people
she had known all her life, the scenes amidst which she had played when
a child, were to her the dearest people and the loveliest scenes upon
earth. It would be pleasant to her to travel with her husband, and see
fair lands across the sea: but pleasanter still would be the
home-coming to the familiar hearth beside which her father had sat, the
old faces that had looked upon him, the hands that had served him, the
gardens he had planted and improved.

"I should like to show you Briarwood before it is let, Vixen," Mr.
Vawdrey said to his sweetheart, one November morning. "You may at least
pay my poor patrimony the compliment of looking at it before it becomes
the property of Lord and Lady Mallow. Suppose you and Miss McCroke
drive over and drink tea with me this afternoon? I believe my
housekeeper brews pretty good tea."

"Very well, Rorie, we'll come to tea. I should rather like to see the
improvements you made for Lady Mabel, before your misfortune. I think
Lord Mallow must consider it very good of you to let him have the
benefit of all the money you spent, instead of bringing an action for
breach of promise against his wife, as you might very well have done."

"I daresay. But you see I am of a forgiving temper. Well, I shall tell
my housekeeper to have tea and buns, and jam, and all