ame. There was pride also;--a
determination in her own bosom not to confess the fault she had made
in giving herself to him whom she must now think to have been so much
the least worthy of her two suitors. "Her fortune will not be what I
once promised you," said the old man plaintively.

"I do not remember that I ever asked you as to her fortune," Arthur
replied.

"Certainly not. If you had I should not have told you. But as I
named a sum, it is right that I should explain to you that that man
succeeded in lessening it by six or seven thousand pounds."

"If that were all!"

"And I have promised Sir Alured that Everett, as his heir, should
have the use of a considerable portion of his share without waiting
for my death. It is odd that the one of my children from whom I
certainly expected the greater trouble should have fallen so entirely
on his feet; and that the other--; well, let us hope for the best.
Everett seems to have taken up with Wharton as though it belonged
to him already. And Emily--! Well, my dear boy, let us hope that it
may come right yet. You are not drinking your wine. Yes,--pass the
bottle; I'll have another glass before I go upstairs."

In this way the time went by till Emily returned to town. The
Ministry had just then resigned, but I think that "this great
reactionary success," as it was called by the writer in the "People's
Banner," affected one member of the Lower House much less than the
return to London of Mrs. Lopez. Arthur Fletcher had determined that
he would renew his suit as soon as a year should have expired since
the tragedy which had made his love a widow,--and that year had now
passed away. He had known the day well,--as had she, when she passed
the morning weeping in her own room at Wharton. Now he questioned
himself whether a year would suffice,--whether both in mercy to her
and with the view of realizing his own hopes he should give her some
longer time for recovery. But he had told himself that it should be
done at the end of a year, and as he had allowed no one to talk him
out of his word, so neither would he be untrue to it himself. But
it became with him a deep matter of business, a question of great
difficulty, how he should arrange the necessary interview,--whether
he should plead his case with her at their first meeting, or whether
he had better allow her to become accustomed to his presence in the
house. His mother had attempted to ridicule him, because he was, as
she s