_ call him handsome; he is steadier, too, than most men of his
age, and of his command of money; and yet he does not want spirit nor
knowledge of life. To every advantage of rank and fortune he adds the
industry and the ambition which attain distinction in public life."

"Quite true. Is he going to withdraw from the election after all?"

"Good heavens, no!"

"Then how does he not let you have your own way?"

"It is not he," said Travers, peevishly; "it is Cecilia. Don't you
understand that George is precisely the husband I would choose for her;
and this morning came a very well written manly letter from him, asking
my permission to pay his addresses to her."

"But that is your own way so far."

"Yes, and here comes the balk. Of course I had to refer it to Cecilia,
and she positively declines, and has no reasons to give; does not deny
that George is good-looking and sensible, that he is a man of whose
preference any girl might be proud; but she chooses to say she cannot
love him, and when I ask why she cannot love him, has no other answer
than that 'she cannot say.' It is too provoking."

"It is provoking," answered Kenelm; "but then Love is the most
dunderheaded of all the passions; it never will listen to reason. The
very rudiments of logic are unknown to it. 'Love has no wherefore,' says
one of those Latin poets who wrote love-verses called elegies,--a name
which we moderns appropriate to funeral dirges. For my own part, I can't
understand how any one can be expected voluntarily to make up his mind
to go out of his mind. And if Miss Travers cannot go out of her mind
because George Belvoir does, you could not argue her into doing so if
you talked till doomsday."

Travers smiled in spite of himself, but he answered gravely, "Certainly,
I would not wish Cissy to marry any man she disliked, but she does not
dislike George; no girl could: and where that is the case, a girl so
sensible, so affectionate, so well brought up, is sure to love, after
marriage, a thoroughly kind and estimable man, especially when she has
no previous attachment,--which, of course, Cissy never had. In fact,
though I do not wish to force my daughter's will, I am not yet disposed
to give up my own. Do you understand?"

"Perfectly."

"I am the more inclined to a marriage so desirable in every way, because
when Cissy comes out in London, which she has not yet done, she is
sure to collect round her face and her presumptive inheritance all the