r.
And Lord Castlewell knew very well what were her sentiments.

It cannot be said that he repented of his offer. Indeed he pressed
her for an answer more than once or twice. But her conduct to him was
certainly very aggravating. This matter of her marriage with an earl
was an affair of great moment. Indeed all London was alive with the
subject. But she had not time to give him an answer because it was
necessary that she should study a part for the theatre. This was hard
upon an earl, and was made no better by the fact that the earl was
forty. "No, my lord earl," she said laughing, "the time for that has
not come yet. You must give me a few days to think of it." This she
said when he expressed a not unnatural desire to give her a kiss.

But though she apparently made light of the matter to him, and
astonished even her father by her treatment of him, yet she thought
of it with a very anxious mind. She was quite alive to the glories
of the position offered to her, and was not at all alive to its
inconveniences. People would assert that she had caught the lover who
had intended her for other purposes. "That was of course out of the
question," she said to herself. And she felt sure that she could make
as good a countess as the best of them. With her father a Member of
Parliament, and her husband an earl, she would have done very well
with herself. She would have escaped from that brute Moss, and would
have been subjected to less that was disagreeable in the encounter
than might have been expected. She must lose the public singing which
was attractive to her, and must become the wife of an old man. It was
thus in truth that she looked at the noble lord. "There would be an
end," she said, "and for ever, of 'Love's young dream.'" The dream
had been very pleasant to her. She had thoroughly liked her Frank.
He was handsome, fresh, full of passion, and a little violent when
his temper lay in that direction. But he had been generous, and she
was sure of him that he had loved her thoroughly. After all, was not
"Love's young dream" the best?

An answer was at any rate due to Lord Castlewell. But she made up
her mind that before she could give the answer, she would write to
Frank himself. "My lord," she said very gravely to her suitor, "it
has become my lot in life to be engaged to marry the son of that Mr.
Jones of whom you have heard in the west of Ireland."

"I am aware of it," said Lord Castlewell gravely.

"It has been nec