pera, and had ridden in the Park, and been seen at flower-shows;
but she had not been so common in those places as to be known to the
crowd. And, hitherto, neither in town or country, had her name been
connected with that of any suitor for her hand. She was now twenty,
and the reader will remember that in the twelve months last past, the
House of Humblethwaite had been clouded with deep mourning.

The cousin was come and gone, and the Baronet hoped in his heart
that there might be an end of him as far as Humblethwaite was
concerned;--at any rate till his child should have given herself to a
better lover. Tidings had been sent to Sir Harry during the last week
of the young man's sojourn beneath his roof, which of all that had
reached his ears were the worst. He had before heard of recklessness,
of debt, of dissipation, of bad comrades. Now he heard of worse than
these. If that which he now heard was true, there had been dishonour.
But Sir Harry was a man who wanted ample evidence before he allowed
his judgment to actuate his conduct, and in this case the evidence
was far from ample. He did not stint his hospitality to the future
baronet, but he failed to repeat that promise of a future welcome
which had already been given, and which had been thankfully accepted.
But a man knows that such an offer of renewed hospitality should be
repeated at the moment of departure, and George Hotspur, as he was
taken away to the nearest station in his cousin's carriage, was quite
aware that Sir Harry did not then desire that the visit should be
repeated.

Lord Alfred was to be at Humblethwaite on Christmas-eve. The
emergencies of the Board at which he sat would not allow of an
earlier absence from London. He was a man who shirked no official
duty, and was afraid of no amount of work; and though he knew how
great was the prize before him, he refused to leave his Board before
the day had come at which his Board must necessarily dispense with
his services. Between him and his father there had been no reticence,
and it was clearly understood by him that he was to go down and win
twenty thousand a year and the prettiest girl in Cumberland, if his
own capacity that way, joined to all the favour of the girl's father
and mother, would enable him to attain success. To Emily not a word
more had been said on the subject than those which have been already
narrated as having been spoken by the mother to the daughter. With
all his authority, with al