he
didn't mean to steal it. I'm as sure that man didn't mean to steal
twenty pounds as I ever could be of anything. Perhaps I shall get
something about it out of Walker after dinner." Then Mr. Walker
entered the room. "This is very kind of you, Mr. Walker; very indeed.
I take it quite as a compliment, your coming in in this sort of way.
It's just pot luck, you know, and nothing else." Mr. Walker of course
assured his host that he was delighted. "Just a leg of mutton and
a bottle of old port, Mr. Walker," continued Toogood. "We never get
beyond that in the way of dinner-giving; do we, Maria?"

But Maria was at this moment descanting on the good luck of the
family to her nephew,--and on one special piece of good luck which
had just occurred. Mr. Summerkin's maiden aunt had declared her
intention of giving up the fortune to the young people at once. She
had enough to live upon, she said, and would therefore make two
lovers happy. "And they're to be married on the first day of May,"
said Lucy,--that Lucy of whom her father had boasted to Mr. Crawley
that she knew Byron by heart,--"and won't that be jolly? Mamma is
going out to look for a house for them to-morrow. Fancy Polly with a
house of her own! Won't it be stunning? I wish you were going to be
married too, Johnny."

"Don't be a fool, Lucy."

"Of course I know that you are in love. I hope you are not going to
give over being in love, Johnny, because it is such fun."

"Wait till you're caught yourself, my girl."

"I don't mean to be caught till some great swell comes this way.
And as great swells never do come into Tavistock Square I shan't
have a chance. I'll tell you what I would like; I'd like to have a
Corsair,--or else a Giaour;--I think a Giaour would be nicest. Only
a Giaour wouldn't be a Giaour here, you know. Fancy a lover 'Who
thundering comes on blackest steed, With slackened bit and hoof of
speed.' Were not those days to live in! But all that is over now, you
know, and young people take houses in Woburn Place, instead of being
locked up, or drowned, or married to a hideous monster behind a veil.
I suppose it's better as it is, for some reasons."

"I think it must be more jolly, as you call it, Lucy."

"I'm not quite sure. I know I'd go back and be Medora, if I could.
Mamma is always telling Polly that she must be careful about
William's dinner. But Conrad didn't care for his dinner. 'Light toil!
to cull and dress thy frugal fare! See, I have plucked