ns; but
Fred Neville was bold and frank as well as handsome, and had plenty to
say for himself. It might be that he was vicious, or ill-tempered, or
selfish, and it would be necessary that she should know much of him
before she would give herself into his keeping; but as far as the first
sight went, and the first hearing, Sophie Mellerby's impressions were
all in Fred's favour. It is no doubt a fact that with the very best of
girls a man is placed in a very good light by being heir to a peerage
and a large property.

"Do you hunt, Miss Mellerby?" he asked. She shook her head and looked
grave, and then laughed. Among her people hunting was not thought to be
a desirable accomplishment for young ladies. "Almost all girls do hunt
now," said Fred.

"Do you think it is a nice amusement for young ladies?" asked the aunt
in a severe tone.

"I don't see why not;--that is if they know how to ride."

"I know how to ride," said Sophie Mellerby.

"Riding is all very well," said Lady Scroope. "I quite approve of it
for girls. When I was young, everybody did not ride as they do now.
Nevertheless it is very well, and is thought to be healthy. But as for
hunting, Sophie, I'm sure your mamma would be very much distressed if
you were to think of such a thing."

"But, dear Lady Scroope, I haven't thought of it, and I am not going to
think of it;--and if I thought of it ever so much, I shouldn't do it.
Poor mamma would be frightened into fits,--only that nobody at Mellerby
could possibly be made to believe it, unless they saw me doing it."

"Then there can be no reason why you shouldn't make the attempt," said
Fred. Upon which Lady Scroope pretended to look grave, and told him that
he was very wicked. But let an old lady be ever so strict towards her
own sex, she likes a little wickedness in a young man,--if only he does
not carry it to the extent of marrying the wrong sort of young woman.

Sophia Mellerby was a tall, graceful, well-formed girl, showing her high
blood in every line of her face. On her mother's side she had come from
the Ancrums, whose family, as everybody knows, is one of the oldest in
England; and, as the Earl had said, the Mellerbys had been Mellerbys
from the time of King John, and had been living on the same spot for
at least four centuries. They were and always had been Mellerbys of
Mellerby,--the very name of the parish being the same as that of the
family. If Sophia Mellerby did not shew breeding, what girl