eby,
he was always received with smiles. He had a hundred little ways of
making himself agreeable, and Augusta declared to her cousin, the
Lady Amelia, after having been acquainted with him for a few months,
that he would be a perfect gentleman, only, that his family had
never been anything but attorneys. The Lady Amelia smiled in her own
peculiarly aristocratic way, shrugged her shoulders slightly, and
said, "that Mr Mortimer Gazebee was a very good sort of a person,
very." Poor Augusta felt herself snubbed, thinking perhaps of the
tailor's son; but as there was never any appeal against the Lady
Amelia, she said nothing more at that moment in favour of Mr Mortimer
Gazebee.

All these evils--Mr Mortimer Gazebee being the worst of them--had Sir
Louis Scatcherd brought down on the poor squire's head. There may be
those who will say that the squire had brought them on himself, by
running into debt; and so, doubtless, he had; but it was not the less
true that the baronet's interference was unnecessary, vexatious, and
one might almost say, malicious. His interest would have been quite
safe in the doctor's hands, and he had, in fact, no legal right to
meddle; but neither the doctor nor the squire could prevent him. Mr
Finnie knew very well what he was about, if Sir Louis did not; and
so the three went on, each with his own lawyer, and each of them
distrustful, unhappy, and ill at ease. This was hard upon the doctor,
for he was not in debt, and had borrowed no money.

There was not much reason to suppose that the visit of Sir Louis to
Greshamsbury would much improve matters. It must be presumed that he
was not coming with any amicable views, but with the object rather
of looking after his own; a phrase which was now constantly in his
mouth. He might probably find it necessary while looking after his
own at Greshamsbury, to say some very disagreeable things to the
squire; and the doctor, therefore, hardly expected that the visit
would go off pleasantly.

When last we saw Sir Louis, now nearly twelve months since, he
was intent on making a proposal of marriage to Miss Thorne. This
intention he carried out about two days after Frank Gresham had done
the same thing. He had delayed doing so till he had succeeded in
purchasing his friend Jenkins's Arab pony, imagining that such a
present could not but go far in weaning Mary's heart from her other
lover. Poor Mary was put to the trouble of refusing both the baronet
and the pony,