tle grandchild for the last time, perhaps, for years--she would
not believe for ever; but both she and Netta were obliged to put a brave
face upon it, in order not to displease Howel, already suspicious of
their conversations.

'You see Netta has all the grandest lady could desire,' said Howel,
before Mrs Prothero left.

'Oh yes! I hope you will be happy,' was the reply. Mrs Prothero had
never given a thought to the grandeur by which she was surrounded.

'Why not? Does Netta complain?' said Howel.

'No, no; she says you are very good, and let her have all she wants;
but, Howel, riches may not always bring happiness, and we must try to
look beyond the perishable things of life for it.'

'Pshaw!' said Howel, impatiently; 'you know, aunt, I hate that sort of
cant.'

Soon after she left Abertewey, Colonel Vaughan called Howel and he had
a long conversation, the purport of which was, that the colonel wished
to come himself to reside at Abertewey at the end of Howel's term of two
years; and Howel was quite ready and willing to give it up to him,
saying that he meant to purchase a house in town--in Belgravia, of
course--and to reside there until he could meet with a property that he
could purchase.

Howel told Netta that he was tired of the neighbourhood already, it was
so stupid; and that London, and a country house in some English county,
would be far preferable to living in such a dull part of the world. She
quite agreed with him, and had her own reasons for being glad to leave
Wales. In the first place, she was not at home with the people she met
in society, and liked the notion of living where no one would know that
she was the daughter of the Protheros of Glanyravon. In the second,
Howel would be always at home in London, and never again absent for
three months, she knew not why. Moreover, she longed to be far away from
the mother-in-law, who was a sort of spy over all she said or did; and
she thought Howel would be kinder to her when he was at a distance from
their kith and kin, whose propinquity seemed to irritate him.

Netta did not stop to consider Howel's real reasons for leaving the
country, or imagine for a moment that a man of his, to her,
inexhaustible resources, could be induced to do so because he found
those resources were not inexhaustible. Neither did she remember that in
London he would be in the midst of the gamblers, horse-racers, and
spendthrifts who had been helping him to diminish his father'