tting you to so much expense. My son here
has an excellent appetite, as you must have found out by this time, and
for my part so have I. I think it a thousand pities to put you to this
trouble--and expense."

"Pray don't think of that," said Mr. May with courtesy, which belied his
feelings, for he would have liked nothing so well as to have knocked
down his complacent patron. He led the way out, almost with eagerness,
feeling Mr. Copperhead to be less offensive out of doors than within
four walls. Was this the sort of man to be appealed to for help as he
had thought? Probably his very arrogance would make him more disposed
towards liberality. Probably it would flatter his sense of consequence,
to have such a request made to him. Mr. May was very much at sea,
letting I dare not wait upon I would; afraid to speak lest he should
shut this door of help by so doing, and afraid to lose the chance of any
succour by not speaking. He tried hard, in spite of all his
difficulties, to be smooth and agreeable to a man who had so much in his
power; but it was harder work than he could have thought.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

FATHER AND SON.

Ursula had prepared a very careful luncheon for the stranger. She
thought him disagreeable, but she had not looked at him much, for,
indeed, Ursula's mind was much unsettled. Horace Northcote had spoken to
her that morning, after Mrs. Hurst's visit and her retaliation upon him,
as no man yet had ever spoken to her before. He had told her a long
story, though it was briefly done, and could have been expressed in
three words. He was not of her species of humanity; his ways of
thinking, his prejudices, his traditions, were all different from hers,
and yet that had happened to him which happens all over the world in
every kind of circumstances--without knowing how it was, he had got to
love her. Yes, he knew very well how it was, or rather, he knew when it
was, which is all that is to be expected from a lover. It was on the
evening of the _entrees_, the first dinner-party, and he had gone on
ever since, deeper and deeper, hearing her say many things which he did
not agree in, and tracing her life through a score of little habits
which were not congenial to his, yet loving her more and more for all
that was new to him, and even for the things which were uncongenial. He
had told her all this, and Ursula had listened with a kind of awe,
wondering at the ardour in the young man's eyes, and the warmth w