ng, suggesting that Belton wanted to get the shooting for
himself as he had got the farm. But, nevertheless, the effect which
Clara had intended was produced, and before she left him he had
absolutely proposed that the shooting and the land should go
together.

"I'm sure that Mr. Belton doesn't mean that at all," said Clara.

"I don't care what he means," said the squire.

"And it wouldn't do to treat Colonel Askerton in that way," said
Clara.

"I shall treat him just as I like," said the squire.

CHAPTER IV.

SAFE AGAINST LOVE-MAKING.

A dear cousin, and safe against love-making! This was Clara's verdict
respecting Will Belton, as she lay thinking of him in bed that night.
Why that warranty against love-making should be a virtue in her eyes
I cannot, perhaps, explain. But all young ladies are apt to talk
to themselves in such phrases about gentlemen with whom they are
thrown into chance intimacy;--as though love-making were in itself
a thing injurious and antagonistic to happiness, instead of being,
as it is, the very salt of life. Safe against love-making! And yet
Mrs. Askerton, her friend, had spoken of the probability of such
love-making as being the great advantage of his coming. And there
could not be a second opinion as to the expediency of a match between
her and her cousin in a worldly point of view. Clara, moreover,
had already perceived that he was a man fit to guide a wife, very
good-humoured,--and good-tempered also, anxious to give pleasure to
others, a man of energy and forethought, who would be sure to do well
in the world and hold his head always high among his fellows;--as
good a husband as a girl could have. Nevertheless, she congratulated
herself in that she felt satisfied that he was safe against
love-making! Might it be possible that that pressing of hands at
Taunton had been so tender, and those last words spoken with Captain
Aylmer so soft, that on his account she felt delighted to think that
her cousin was warranted not to make love?

And what did Will Belton think about his cousin, insured as he was
thus supposed to be against the dangers of love? He, also, lay awake
for awhile that night, thinking over this new friendship. Or rather
he thought of it walking about his room, and looking out at the
bright harvest moon;--for with him to be in bed was to be asleep.
He sat himself down, and he walked about, and he leaned out of the
window into the cool night air; and he made some