n the
Two-year-old Trial Stakes last spring, giving two pounds to
Box-and-Cox. A good-looking, tall fellow. You remember seeing him here
once last summer." This was addressed to Miss Grey; but Miss Grey had
made up her mind never to exchange a word with Mr. Carroll.

"When is it to be, my dear?" said Miss Grey, turning to the ladies, but
intending to address herself to Amelia. She had already made up her mind
to forgive the girl for her insolence about the house. If the girl was
to be taken away, there was so much the more reason for forgiving her
that and other things.

"Oh! I thought that you did not mean to speak to me at all," said
Amelia. "I supposed the cut was to be extended from papa to me."

"Amelia, how can you be so silly?" said the mother.

"If you think I'm going to put up with that kind of thing, you're
mistaken," said Amelia. She had got not only a lover but a husband in
prospect, and was much superior to her cousin,--who had neither one or
the other, as far as she was aware. "Mr. Juniper, with an excellent
house and a plentiful income, is quite good enough for me, though he
hasn't got any regal ancestors." She did not intend to laugh at her
father, but was aware that something had been said about ancestors by
her cousin. "A gentleman who has the management of horses is almost the
same as owning them."

"But when is it to be?" again asked Dolly.

"That depends a little upon my brother," said Mrs. Carroll, in a voice
hardly above a whisper. "Mr. Juniper has spoken about a day."

"Then it will depend chiefly on himself and the young lady, I suppose?"

"Well, Dorothea, there are money difficulties. There's no denying it."

"I wish I could shower gold into her lap," said Mr. Carroll, "only for
the accursed conventionalities of the world."

"Bother, papa!" said Sophia.

"It will be the last of it, as far as I am concerned," said Amelia.

"Mr. Juniper has said something about a few hundred pounds," said Mrs.
Carroll. "It isn't much that he wants."

Then Miss Grey spoke in a severe tone. "You must speak to my father
about that."

"I am not to have your good word, I suppose," said Amelia. Human flesh
and blood could not but remember all that had been done, and always with
her consent. "Five hundred pounds is not a great deal for portioning off
a girl when that is to be the last that she is ever to have." One of
six nieces whose father and mother were maintained, and that without the
slightest cla