rdly possible
that there should be anything romantic in a marriage with the heir
of the Duke of Merioneth. As far as wealth and rank went there was
enough in both competitors. She whispered therefore to her girl the
name of the younger aspirant,--aspirant as he might be hoped to
be,--and the girl was not opposed to the idea. Only let there be no
falling to the ground between two stools; no starving for want of
fodder between two bundles of hay! Lord Llwddythlw had already begun
to give symptoms. No doubt he was bald; no doubt he was pre-occupied
with Parliament and the county. There was no doubt that his wife
would have to encounter that touch of ridicule which a young girl
incurs when she marries a man altogether removed beyond the world of
romance. But dukes are scarce, and the man of business was known to
be a man of high honour. There would be no gambling, no difficulties,
no possible question of a want of money. And then his politics were
the grandest known in England,--those of an old Tory willing always
to work for his party without desiring any of those rewards which the
"party" wishes to divide among as select a number as possible. What
Lord Hampstead might turn out to be, there was as yet no knowing. He
had already declared himself to be a Radical. He was fond of hunting,
and it was quite on the cards that he should take to Newmarket. Then,
too, his father might live for five-and-twenty years, whereas the
Duke of Merioneth was already nearly eighty. But Hampstead was as
beautiful as a young Phoebus, and the pair would instantly become
famous if only from their good looks alone. The chance was given to
Lady Amaldina, but only given on the understanding that she must make
very quick work of her time.

Hampstead was coaxed down to Castle Hautboy for a month in September,
with an idea that the young lovers might be as romantic as they
pleased among the Lakes. Some little romance there was; but at the
end of the first week Amaldina wisely told her mother that the thing
wouldn't do. She would always be glad to regard Lord Hampstead as a
cousin, but as to anything else, there must be an end of it. "I shall
some day give up my title and abandon the property to Freddy. I shall
then go to the United States, and do the best I can there to earn
my own bread." This little speech, made by the proposed lover to
the girl he was expected to marry, opened Lady Amaldina's eyes to
the danger of her situation. Lord Llwddythlw was