that he lives in fear of some one offering him a
living,' said Lord Ormersfield.

'And the dear old Giraffe?' said Louis.

'Clara? She is looking almost handsome. I wish some good man would
marry her. She would make an excellent wife.'

'I am not ready to spare her yet,' said Mary; 'I must make acquaintance
with her before any excellent man carries her off.'

'But there is a marriage that will surprise you,' said the Earl; 'your
eldest cousin, whose name I can never remember--'

'Virginia,' cried Louis. 'Captain Lonsdale, I hope!'

'What could have made you fix on him?'

'Because the barricades could not have been in vain, and he was an
excellent fellow, to whom I owe a great deal of gratitude. He kept my
aunt's terrors in abeyance most gallantly; and little Virginia drank in
his words, and built up a hero! But how was it?'

'You remember that Lady Conway would not take our advice, and stay
quietly at home. On the first steamer she fell in with this captain,
and it seems that she was helpless enough, without her former butler,
to be very grateful to him for managing her passports and conducting
her through Germany. And the conclusion was, that she herself had
encouraged him so far, that she really had not any justification in
refusing when he proposed for the young lady, as he is fairly provided
for.'

'My poor aunt! No one ever pities her when she is 'hoist with her own
petard!' I am glad poor Virginia is to be happy in her own way.'

'I shall send my congratulations to-morrow,' said the Earl, smiling
triumphantly, 'and a piece of intelligence of my own. At H. B. M.
Consul's, Lima--what day was it, Louis?'

Mary ran away to take off her bonnet, as much surprised by the Earl's
mirth as if she had seen primroses in December. Yet such blossoms are
sometimes tempted forth; and affection was breathing something like a
second spring on the life so long unnaturally chilled and blighted.
If his shoulders were bowed, his figure had lost much of its rigidity;
and though his locks were thinned and whitened, and his countenance
slightly aged, yet the softened look and the more frequent smile had
smoothed away the sternness, and given gentleness to his dignity.

No sooner was she out of the room than Lord Ormersfield asked, 'And
what have you done with the Spanish woman?'

The answer excited a peal of laughter, which made Louis stand aghast,
both at such unprecedented merriment and at the cause; for hith