s illustrious? But if it were not so,
what had the girl meant by saying that it was impossible? That the
word should have been used once or twice in maidenly scruple, the
Countess could understand; but it had been repeated with a vehemence
beyond that which such natural timidity might have produced. And now
the girl professed herself to be ill in bed, and when the subject was
broached would only weep, and repeat the one word with which she had
expressed her repugnance to the match.

Hitherto she had not been like this. She had, in her own quiet way,
shared her mother's aspirations, and had always sympathised with
her mother's sufferings; and she had been dutiful through it all,
carrying herself as one who was bound to special obedience by the
peculiarity of her parent's position. She had been keenly alive to
the wrongs that her mother endured, and had in every respect been a
loving child. But now she protested that she would not do the one
thing necessary to complete their triumph, and would give no reason
for not doing so. As the Countess thought of all this, she swore
to herself that she would prefer to divest her bosom of all soft
motherly feeling than be vanquished in this matter by her own child.
Her daughter should find that she could be stern and rough enough if
she were really thwarted. What would her life be worth to her if her
child, Lady Anna Lovel, the heiress and only legitimate offspring of
the late Earl Lovel, were to marry a--tailor?

And then, again, she told herself that there was no sufficient excuse
for such alarm. Her daughter's demeanour had ever been modest. She
had never been given to easy friendship, or to that propensity to
men's acquaintance which the world calls flirting. It might be that
the very absence of such propensity,--the very fact that hitherto she
had never been thrust into society among her equals,--had produced
that feeling almost of horror which she had expressed. But she had
been driven, at any rate, to say that she would meet the young man;
and the Countess, acting upon that, called on Mr. Goffe in his
chambers, and explained to that gentleman that she proposed to settle
the whole question in dispute by giving her daughter to the young
Earl in marriage. Mr. Goffe, who had been present at the conference
among the lawyers, understood it all in a moment. The overture had
been made from the other side to his client.

"Indeed, my lady!" said Mr. Goffe.

"Do you not think it wil