e
heard, probably, of Miss Dunstable?"

"The daughter of the ointment of Lebanon man?"

"And of course you know that her fortune is immense," continued
the countess, not deigning to notice her nephew's allusion to the
ointment. "Quite immense when compared with the wants and position of
any commoner. Now she is coming to Courcy Castle, and I wish you to
come and meet her."

"But, aunt, just at this moment I have to read for my degree like
anything. I go up, you know, in October."

"Degree!" said the countess. "Why, Frank, I am talking to you of
your prospects in life, of your future position, of that on which
everything hangs, and you tell me of your degree!"

Frank, however, obstinately persisted that he must take his degree,
and that he should commence reading hard at six a.m. to-morrow
morning.

"You can read just as well at Courcy Castle. Miss Dunstable will
not interfere with that," said his aunt, who knew the expediency of
yielding occasionally; "but I must beg you will come over and meet
her. You will find her a most charming young woman, remarkably well
educated I am told, and--"

"How old is she?" asked Frank.

"I really cannot say exactly," said the countess; "but it is not, I
imagine, matter of much moment."

"Is she thirty?" asked Frank, who looked upon an unmarried woman of
that age as quite an old maid.

"I dare say she may be about that age," said the countess, who
regarded the subject from a very different point of view.

"Thirty!" said Frank out loud, but speaking, nevertheless, as though
to himself.

"It is a matter of no moment," said his aunt, almost angrily. "When
the subject itself is of such vital importance, objections of no
real weight should not be brought into view. If you wish to hold up
your head in the country; if you wish to represent your county in
Parliament, as has been done by your father, your grandfather, and
your great-grandfathers; if you wish to keep a house over your head,
and to leave Greshamsbury to your son after you, you must marry
money. What does it signify whether Miss Dunstable be twenty-eight
or thirty? She has got money; and if you marry her, you may then
consider that your position in life is made."

Frank was astonished at his aunt's eloquence; but, in spite of
that eloquence, he made up his mind that he would not marry Miss
Dunstable. How could he, indeed, seeing that his troth was already
plighted to Mary Thorne in the presence of his sister? This