nd pounds.'

'You don't mean that!' said Lord Valentine; 'and she is a very nice
girl, too.'

'You are quite wrong about the hundred thousand, Fitz,' said Lord
Milford; 'for I made it my business to inquire most particularly into
the affair: it is only fifty.'

'In these cases, the best rule is only to believe half,' said Mr.
Ormsby.

'Then you have only got twenty thousand a-year, Ormsby,' said Lord
Milford, laughing, 'because the world gives you forty.'

'Well, we must do the best we can in these hard times,' said Mr. Ormsby,
with an air of mock resignation. 'With your Dukes of Bellamont and all
these grandees on the stage, we little men shall be scarcely able to
hold up our heads.'

'Come, Ormsby,' said Lord Milford; 'tell us the amount of your income
tax.'

'They say Sir Robert quite blushed when he saw the figure at which you
were sacked, and declared it was downright spoliation.'

'You young men are always talking about money,' said Mr. Ormsby, shaking
his head; 'you should think of higher things.'

'I wonder what young Montacute will be thinking of this time next year,'
said Lord Fitz-Heron.

'There will be plenty of people thinking of him,' said Mr. Cassilis.
'Egad! you gentlemen must stir yourselves, if you mean to be turned off.
You will have rivals.'

'He will be no rival to me,' said Lord Milford; 'for I am an avowed
fortune-hunter, and that you say he does not care for, at least, at
present.'

'And I marry only for love,' said Lord Valentine, laughing; 'and so we
shall not clash.'

'Ay, ay; but if he will not go to the heiresses, the heiresses will go
to him,' said Mr. Ormsby. 'I have seen a good deal of these things, and
I generally observe the eldest son of a duke takes a fortune out of the
market. Why, there is Beaumanoir, he is like Valentine; I suppose
he intends to marry for love, as he is always in that way; but the
heiresses never leave him alone, and in the long run you cannot
withstand it; it is like a bribe; a man is indignant at the bare
thought, refuses the first offer, and pockets the second.'

'It is very immoral, and very unfair,' said Lord Milford, 'that any man
should marry for tin who does not want it.'

CHAPTER IV.

_Montacute Castle_

THE forest of Montacute, in the north of England, is the name given to
an extensive district, which in many parts offers no evidence of the
propriety of its title. The land, especially during the last century,
has been