young gentleman in our neighbourhood, till he made me an
offer one morning, and I really believe I should have been persuaded
into marrying him, though I did not care a bit about him, if I had not
been attached to your poor dear father at the time: now you have nothing
of that sort to save you; so, as I said before, my dear, mind what you
are about."

"I don't think Mr. Lawless's heart will be broken while there is a pack
of hounds within reach, mamma dear," replied Fanny, glancing archly at
me as she spoke.

As we were about to proceed to our several rooms for the night, I
contrived to delay my mother for a moment under pretext of lighting a
candle for her, and closing the door, I said:--

"My dear mother, if, by any odd chance, Fanny should be inclined to like
Lawless, don't you say anything against it. Lawless is a good fellow;
all his faults lie on the surface, and are none of them serious; he is
completely his own master, and might marry any girl he pleased tomorrow,
and I need not tell you would be a most excellent match for Fanny.
He seems very much taken with her; and no wonder, for she is really
excessively pretty; and when she is in spirits, as she was to-night, her
manner is most piquante and fascinating."

"Well, my dear boy," was the reply, "you know your friend best, and if
he and Fanny choose to take a fancy to each other, and you approve of
it, I shall not say anything against it."

Whereupon I kissed her, called her a dear, good old mother, and carried
up for her, in token of affection, her work-box, her reticule, her
candle and a basket, ~331~~ containing a large bunch of keys, sundry
halfpence and three pairs of my own stockings which wanted mending, a
process which invariably rendered them unwearable ever after.

CHAPTER XLII -- THE MEET AT EVERSLEY GORSE

"We'll make you some sport with the fox Ere we case him."
--_All's Well that Ends Well_.

"Oh! for a fall, if fall she must,
On the gentle lap of Flora;
But still, thank Heaven, she clings to her seat."
--_Hood_.

"She held his drooping head,
Till given to breathe the freer air,
Returning life repaid their care;
He gazed on them with heavy sigh--
I could have wished e'en thus to die."
--_Rokeby_.

IT had been arranged between my mother and Oaklands, in the earlier part
of the evening on which the events descr