. Flick.

Mr. Goffe did consult his partner and did see Mr. Flick, and then
Serjeant Bluestone was asked his advice,--and the Solicitor-General.
The Serjeant had become somewhat tired of the Lovels, and did not
care to give any strong advice either in one direction or in the
other. The young lady, he said, might of course do what she liked
with her own when it was her own; but he thought that she should not
be hurried. He pointed it out as a fact that the Earl had not the
slightest claim upon any portion of the estate,--not more than he
would have had if this money had come to Lady Anna from her mother's
instead of from her father's relatives. He was still of opinion that
the two cousins might ultimately become man and wife if matters were
left tranquil and the girl were taken abroad for a year or two. Lady
Anna, however, would be of age in a few weeks, and must of course do
as she liked with her own.

But they all felt that everything would at last be ruled by what the
Solicitor-General might say. The Solicitor-General was going out of
town for a week or ten days,--having the management of a great case
at the Spring Assizes. He would think over Lady Anna's proposition,
and say what he had to say when he returned. Lord Lovel, however,
had been his client, and he had said from first to last that more
was to be done for his client by amicable arrangement than by
hostile opposition. If the Earl could get L10,000 a year by amicable
arrangement, the Solicitor-General would be shown to have been right
in the eyes of all men, and it was probable,--as both Mr. Goffe and
Mr. Flick felt,--that he would not repudiate a settlement of the
family affairs by which he would be proved to have been a discreet
counsellor.

In the meantime it behoved Lord Lovel himself to have an opinion. Mr.
Flick of course had told him of the offer,--which had in truth been
made directly to himself by his cousin. At this time his affairs were
not in a happy condition. A young earl, handsome and well esteemed,
may generally marry an heiress,--if not one heiress then another.
Though he be himself a poor man, his rank and position will stand in
lieu of wealth. And so would it have been with this young earl,--who
was very handsome and excellently well esteemed,--had it not been
that all the world knew that it was his especial business to marry
one especial heiress. He could hardly go about looking for other
honey, having, as he had, one particular hive d