his
heart? Young Lord Lovel sighed for the wealth without which his title
would only be to him a terrible burden, and yet he was resolved that
he would take no part in anything that was unjust. This girl, he
heard, was beautiful and soft and pleasant, and now they told him
that the evil things which had been reported against her had been
slanders. He was assured that she was neither coarse, nor vulgar, nor
unmaidenly. Two or three old men, of equal rank with his own,--men
who had been his father's friends and were allied to the Lovels, and
had been taken into confidence by Sir William,--told him that the
proper way out of the difficulty had been suggested to him. There
could be nothing, they said, more fitting than that two cousins so
situated should marry. With such an acknowledgment of her rank and
birth everybody would visit his wife. There was not a countess or a
duchess in London who would not be willing to take her by the hand.
His two aunts had gradually given way, and it was clear to him that
his uncle would give way,--even his uncle,--if he would but yield
himself. It was explained to him that if the girl came to Yoxham,
with the privilege of being called Lady Anna by the inhabitants of
the rectory, she would of course do so on the understanding that she
should accept her cousin's hand. "But she might not like me," said
the young Earl to his aunt.

"Not like you!" said Mrs. Lovel, putting her hand up to his brow and
pushing away his hair. Was it possible that any girl should not like
such a man as that, and he an earl?

"And if I did not like her, Aunt Lovel?"

"Then I would not ask her to be my wife." He thought that there
was an injustice in this, and yet before the day was over he had
assented.

"I do not think that I can call her Lady Anna," said the rector. "I
don't think I can bring my tongue to do it."

CHAPTER VII.

THE SOLICITOR-GENERAL PERSEVERES.

There was considerable difficulty in making the overture to the
two ladies,--or rather in making it to the elder lady; for the
suggestion, if made to the daughter, must of course come to her from
her mother. It had been decided at last that the Lady Anna could not
be invited to the rectory till it had been positively settled that
she should be the Lady Anna without further opposition; and that all
opposition to the claim should be withdrawn, at any rate till it was
found that the young people were not inclined to be engaged to each
other.