is a _rara avis_, at all events mother."

"Oh, dear! but all men say that of a girl when they are in love--it
amounts to very little."

"You see, he has evidently not proposed to her yet; perhaps she will
refuse him."

"Refuse Sir John Kynaston, of Kynaston Hall! A poor clergyman's daughter!
My dear Maurice, I gave you credit for more knowledge of the world.
Besides, John is a fine-looking man. Oh, no, she is not in the least
likely to refuse him."

"Then all we have got to do is to make the best of her," said Maurice,
composedly.

"That is easily said for you, who need see very little of her. But
John's wife is a person who will be of great importance to my
happiness. Dear me! and to think he might have had Lady Mary Hendrie
for the asking: a charming creature, well born, highly educated and
accomplished--everything that a man could wish for. And there were the De
Vallery girls--either of them would have married him, and been a suitable
wife for him; and he must needs go and throw himself away on a little
country chit, who could have been equally happy, and much more suitably
mated, with her father's curate. Maurice, my dear," with a sudden change
of voice, "I wish you would go down and cut him out; if you made love to
her ever so little you could turn her head, you know."

Maurice burst out laughing. "Oh, you wicked, immoral little mother! Did I
ever hear such an iniquitous proposition! Do you want _me_ to marry her?"

"No, no!" laughed his mother; "but you might make her think you meant to,
and then, perhaps, she would refuse John."

"I have not Kynaston Hall at my back, remember, after which you have
given her the credit of angling. Besides, mother dear, to speak plainly,
I honestly do not think my taste in women is in the least likely to be
the same as John's. No, I think I will keep out of the way whilst the
love-making is going on. I will go down and have a look at the young
woman by-and-by when it is all settled, and let you know what I think of
her. I dare say a good, honest country lass will suit John far better
than a beautiful woman of the world, who would be sure to be miserable
with him. Don't fret, little mother; make the best of her if you can."

He rose and stretched himself up to his full height before the fire. Lady
Kynaston looked up at him admiringly. Oh, she thought, if the money and
the name could only have been his! How well he would have made use of it;
how proud she would have been of