lonel Askerton.

"So you have heard from Plaistow?" said Mrs. Askerton.

"Yes;--in answer to your letter. No, Colonel Askerton, my cousin
William is not coming. But his sister purposes to be here, and I must
go up to the house and get it ready."

"That will do when the time comes," said Mrs. Askerton.

"I did not mean quite immediately."

"And are you to be her guest, or is she to be yours?" said Colonel
Askerton.

"It's her brother's home, and therefore I suppose I must be hers.
Indeed it must be so, as I have no means of entertaining any one."

"Something, no doubt, will be settled," said the Colonel.

"Oh, what a weary word that is," said Clara; "weary, at least, for
a woman's ears! It sounds of poverty and dependence, and endless
trouble given to others, and all the miseries of female dependence.
If I were a young man I should be allowed to settle for myself."

"There would be no question about the property in that case," said
the Colonel.

"And there need be no question now," said Mrs. Askerton.

When the two women were alone together, Clara, of course, scolded her
friend for having written to Norfolk without letting it be known that
she was doing so;--scolded her, and declared how vain it was for her
to make useless efforts for an unattainable end; but Mrs. Askerton
always managed to slip out of these reproaches, neither asserting
herself to be right, nor owning herself to be wrong. "But you must
answer his letter," she said.

"Of course I shall do that."

"I wish I knew what he said."

"I shan't show it you, if you mean that."

"All the same I wish I knew what he said."

Clara, of course, did answer the letter; but she wrote her answer to
Mary, sending, however, one little scrap to Mary's brother. She wrote
to Mary at great length, striving to explain, with long and laborious
arguments, that it was quite impossible that she should accept the
Belton estate from her cousin. That subject, however, and the manner
of her future life, she would discuss with her dear cousin Mary, when
Mary should have arrived. And then Clara said how she would go to
Taunton to meet her cousin, and how she would prepare William's house
for the reception of William's sister; and how she would love her
cousin when she should come to know her. All of which was exceedingly
proper and pretty. Then there was a little postscript, "Give the
enclosed to William." And this was the note to William:--

DEAR WILLIAM,