phy's
allusions. He took Ursula in to dinner, which fluttered her somewhat;
and though he was much intent upon the dinner itself, and studied the
_menu_ with a devotion which would have made her tremble for her
housekeeping, had she been sufficiently disengaged to notice it, he yet
found time to talk a little between the courses.

"I did not expect, when I saw you in London, that we were to meet again
so soon, Miss May," was the perfectly innocent remark with which he
opened the conversation.

Ursula would have said it herself had he not said it, and all she could
do was to answer, "No, indeed," with a smile.

"And I am coming to your father to be coached," continued the young man.
"It is a funny coincidence, don't you think so? I am glad you came to
that ball, Miss May. It makes me feel that I know you. I don't like
starting off afresh, all at once, among people I don't know."

"No," said Ursula; "I should not like it either. But there are other
people you know in Carlingford. There is the lady who was at the
ball--the young lady in black, I used to call her--Miss Beecham; you
must know her better than you know me."

"Who? Phoebe? really!" he said, elevating his eyebrows. "Phoebe in
Carlingford! By Jove! how the governor will laugh! I should like to
know," with a conscious smile on his countenance, "what _she_ is doing
there."

"Her grandmamma is ill, and she is nursing her," said Ursula simply, at
which young Copperhead laughed again.

"Oh, that is how it is! Very good of her, don't you think? Shouldn't
suppose she would be amusing, the old granny, and Phoebe likes to be
amused. I must go to see her as soon as I can get there. You know, we
are Dissenters at home, Miss May. Good joke, isn't it? The governor will
not hear a word against them. As a matter of fact, nobody does go to
chapel in our rank of life; but the governor sometimes is as obstinate
as an old pig."

"I suppose he likes it best," said Ursula, gently; and here a new course
came round, and for the moment Clarence had something else to do. He
resumed after the _entrees_, which were poor, as he made a mental note.

"Is there anything to do at Carlingford, Miss May? I hope you skate. I
am not much in the hunting way; nor your father, I suppose? for, to be
sure, a hunting parson would never do. I am too heavy a weight for most
horses, and the good of galloping over the country all day, after a poor
brute of a fox!--but we must not say that before S