of money. Why, he could
buy out every McPherson and Trevellian in the United Kingdom," was
John's reply; and then, with a little toss of her head, Lady Jane began
her toilet, for it wanted but an hour of dinner.

"There, that will do for me; I can finish the rest myself. And now go to
Blanche's room and see to her and send Neil to me," she said to Lydia,
when she was nearly dressed.

Lydia obeyed, and after she had gone, Lady Jane said to her husband:

"I hope Mrs. Smithers will not object to Blanche, even if she was not
invited. I really could not leave her behind."

There was no reply from John, who was busy in the dressing-room, but a
fresh young voice from the doorway answered her:

"I think it was downright cheeky to bring her without an invitation.
With her giggling, and her _reelys_, and her _yis-es_--all she can
say--and her white eyebrows and tow hair, she is not very ornamental,
even if she has ten thousand a year."

The speaker was Neil McPherson, the boy who on the Fourth of July had
been thrashed by Grey Jerrold for his sneer at the American flag, find
his comments on American ladies. He was a year older than Grey, with a
dark, handsome face, a pleasant smile, and winsome ways when he chose to
be agreeable. As a rule, he was very good-natured, and his manners were
perfect for a boy of fifteen; but there was in all he did or said an air
of superiority, as if he felt himself quite above the majority of his
companions, which, indeed, was the fact. Trained by his mother from
infancy to consider the Trevellian blood the best in England outside the
pale of royalty, and the McPherson blood the best outside the peerage,
it was not strange that his good qualities--and he had many--should be
warped, and dwarfed, and overshadowed by an indomitable pride and
supreme selfishness, which would prompt him at any time to sacrifice his
best friend in behalf of his own interest. And yet Neil was generally a
favorite, for he was frank, and obliging, and good-humored, and very
gentlemanly in his manner, and quick to render the little attentions so
gratifying to the ladies, by whom he was held in high esteem as a
pattern boy. He was the idol of his mother, who saw no fault in him
whatever, and who had commenced already to plan for him a brilliant
marriage, or at least a marriage of money, for her own income was not
large, and that of her husband smaller still.

Blanche Trevellian, whom Neil had designated as tow-haired,