l, no one acting in the Newton
interest could understand, unless Sir George might have thought that
the sum to be ultimately obtained might depend in some degree on that
demanded. Had he known Mr. Carey he would probably not have subjected
himself to the rebuke which he received.

Ralph, when the sum was first named to him by Sir George's lawyer,
who came down purposely to Newton, looked very blank, and said
that he had not anticipated any arrangement so destructive to the
property. The lawyer pointed out that there was unfortunately no
dowager's house provided; that the property would not be destroyed
as the dower would only be an annuity; that ladies now were more
liberally treated in this matter than formerly;--and that the
suggestion was quite the usual thing. "You don't suppose I mean my
daughter to be starved?" said Sir George, upon whom gout was then
coming. Ralph plucked up spirit and answered him. "Nor do I intend
that your daughter, sir, should be starved." "Dear Ralph, do be
liberal to the dear girl," said Lady Eardham afterwards, caressing
our hero in the solitude of her bed-room. Mr. Carey, however,
arranged the whole matter very quickly. The dower must be L2,000, out
of which the widow must find her own house. Sir George must be well
aware, said Mr. Carey, that the demand made was preposterous. Sir
George said one or two very nasty things; but the dower as fixed by
Mr. Carey was accepted, and then everything smiled again.

When the Eardhams were leaving Newton the parting between Augusta
and her lover was quite pretty. "Dear Gus," he said, "when next I am
here, you will be my own, own wife," and he kissed her. "Dear Ralph,"
she said, "when next I am here, you will be my own, own husband," and
kissed him; "but we have Como, and Florence, and Rome, and Naples to
do before that;--and won't that be nice?"

"It will be very nice to be anywhere with you," said the lover.

"And mind you have your coat made just as I told you," said Augusta.
So they parted.

Early in September they were married with great eclat at Brayboro',
and Lady Eardham spared nothing on the occasion. It was her first
maternal triumph, and all the country round was made to know of her
success. The Newtons had been at Newton for--she did not know how
many hundred years. In her zeal she declared that the estate had been
in the same hands from long before the Conquest. "There's no title,"
she said to her intimate friend, Lady Wiggham, "but