pleasant as he spoke.

Mr. Bertram senior did not look good-humoured or pleasant. There was
that in his old eye which was the very opposite to good-humour and
pleasantness.

"Ah!" said he. "Well I am glad of that, for you will be able to do
the more for poor George. He will have wants; he is going to take
care and trouble on himself. Neither he nor his sweetheart have, I
take it, been accustomed to do without wants; and their income will
be tight enough--forby what you can do for them."

The colonel sat and still looked pleasant, but he began to think that
it might be as well for him that he was back at Littlebath.

"Poor George! I hope they will be happy. I think they will; my
greatest anxiety now is of course for their happiness; and yours is
the same, doubtless. It is odd that my child and your child's child
should thus come together, is it not?" so spoke the colonel.

Mr. Bertram looked at him; looked through him almost, but he said
nothing.

"It is odd," continued Sir Lionel, "but a very happy circumstance.
She is certainly the sweetest girl I ever saw; and George is a lucky
fellow."

"Yes, he is a lucky fellow; he will get more than he has any right
to expect. First and last she will have six thousand pounds. I have
not heard him say what he means to settle on her; but perhaps he was
waiting till you had come home."

Sir Lionel's forte during his whole official career had been the
making pleasant--by the pleasantness that was innate in him--things
which appeared to be going in a very unpleasant manner. But how was
he to make things pleasant now?

"Well, you see, George has been so much knocked about! There was his
fellowship. I think they behaved shabbily enough to him."

"Fellowship! One hundred and seventy pounds a year and the run of his
teeth at feast time, or some such thing as that. A man can't marry on
his fellowship very well!"

"Ha! ha! ha! no, he can't exactly do that. On the whole, I think it
was quite as well that he threw it up; and so I told him."

"Did you tell him at the same time what his future income was to be?"

"No, upon my soul I did not; but if all I hear be true, I believe you
did. You have been exceedingly generous to him, George--and to me
also."

"Then, Sir Lionel, allow me to tell you that all you hear is not
true. Anything at all that you may have heard of that kind, if you
have heard anything, is perfectly false. I have said nothing to
George about his income, and h