rrounded by her full bevy of maidens. Rank has
its responsibilities as well as its privileges, and these young
ladies' responsibilities seemed to have consisted in rejecting any
suitor who may have hitherto kneeled to them. But now it was told
through Courcy, that one suitor had kneeled, and not in vain; from
Courcy the rumour flew to Barchester, and thence came down to
Greshamsbury, startling the inhabitants, and making one poor heart
throb with a violence that would have been piteous had it been known.
The suitor, so named, was Mr Mortimer Gazebee.

Yes; Mr Mortimer Gazebee had now awarded to him many other privileges
than those of dining at the table, and all that. He rode with the
young ladies in the park, and they all talked to him very familiarly
before company; all except the Lady Amelia. The countess even called
him Mortimer, and treated him quite as one of the family.

At last came a letter from the countess to her dear sister Arabella.
It should be given at length, but that I fear to introduce another
epistle. It is such an easy mode of writing, and facility is always
dangerous. In this letter it was announced with much preliminary
ambiguity, that Mortimer Gazebee--who had been found to be a treasure
in every way; quite a paragon of men--was about to be taken into the
de Courcy bosom as a child of that house. On that day fortnight, he
was destined to lead to the altar--the Lady Amelia.

The countess then went on to say, that dear Amelia did not
write herself, being so much engaged by her coming duties--the
responsibilities of which she doubtless fully realised, as well as
the privileges; but she had begged her mother to request that the
twins should come and act as bridesmaids on the occasion. Dear
Augusta, she knew, was too much occupied in the coming event in Mr
Oriel's family to be able to attend.

Mr Mortimer Gazebee was taken into the de Courcy family, and did lead
the Lady Amelia to the altar; and the Gresham twins did go there and
act as bridesmaids. And, which is much more to say for human nature,
Augusta did forgive her cousin, and, after a certain interval, went
on a visit to that nice place in Surrey which she had once hoped
would be her own home. It would have been a very nice place, Augusta
thought, had not Lady Amelia Gazebee been so very economical.

We must presume that there was some explanation between them. If so,
Augusta yielded to it, and confessed it to be satisfactory. She had
alwa