any moment, by matters of real importance--not like this."

"Your mind is a little disturbed," replied Carne, as he took her hand
and kissed it, with less than the proper rapture; "is it because of the
brown and hairy man just returned from Africa?"

"Not altogether. But that may be something. He is not a man to be
laughed at. I wish you could have seen my sister."

"I would rather see you; and I have no love of savages. He is my first
cousin, and that affords me a domestic right to object to him. As a
brother-in-law I will have none of him."

"You forget," answered Dolly, with a flash of her old spirit, which he
was subduing too heavily, "that a matter of that sort depends upon us,
and our father, and not upon the gentlemen. If the gentlemen don't like
it, they can always go away."

"How can they go, when they are chained up like a dog? Women may wander
from this one to that, because they have nothing to bind them; but a man
is of steadfast material."

"Erle Twemlow is, at any rate--though it is hard to see his material
through his hair; but that must come off, and I mean to do it. He is the
best-natured man I have ever yet known, except one; and that one had got
nothing to shave. Men never seem to understand about their hair, and
the interest we feel concerning it. But it does not matter very much,
compared to their higher principles."

"That is where I carry every vote, of whatever sex you please"--Carne
saw that this girl must be humoured for the moment. "Anybody can see
what I am. Straightforward, and ready to show my teeth. Why should an
honest man live in a bush?"

"Faith likes it very much; though she always used to say that it did
seem so unchristian. Could you manage to come and meet him, Caryl? We
shall have a little dinner on Saturday, I believe, that every one may
see Erle Twemlow. His beloved parents will be there, who are gone quite
wild about him. Father will be at home for once; and the Marquis of
Southdown, and some officers, and Captain Stubbard and his wife will
come, and perhaps my brother Frank, who admires you so much. You shall
have an invitation in the morning."

"Such delights are not for me," Carne answered, with a superior smile;
"unhappily my time is too important. But perhaps these festivities will
favour me with the chance of a few words with my darling. How I long to
see her, and how little chance I get!"

"Because, when you get it, you spend three-quarters of the time in
arg