l his love for his only remaining child,
with all his consciousness of the terrible importance of the matter
at issue, Sir Harry could not bring himself to suggest to his
daughter that it would be well for her to fall in love with the guest
who was coming to them. But to Lady Elizabeth he said very much. He
had quite made up his mind that the thing would be good, and, having
done so, he was very anxious that the arrangement should be made. It
was natural that this girl of his should learn to love some youth;
and how terrible was the danger of her loving amiss, when so much
depended on her loving wisely! The whole fate of the House of Hotspur
was in her hands,--to do with it as she thought fit! Sir Harry
trembled as he reflected what would be the result were she to come to
him some day and ask his favour for a suitor wholly unfitted to bear
the name of Hotspur, and to sit on the throne of Humblethwaite and
Scarrowby.

"Is she pleased that he is coming?" he said to his wife, the evening
before the arrival of their guest.

"Certainly she is pleased. She knows that we both like him."

"I remember when she used to talk about him--often," said Sir Harry.

"That was when she was a child."

"But a year or two ago," said Sir Harry.

"Three or four years, perhaps; and with her that is a long time. It
is not likely that she should talk much of him now. Of course she
knows what it is that we wish."

"Does she think about her cousin at all?" he said some hours
afterwards.

"Yes, she thinks of him. That is only natural, you know."

"It would be unnatural that she should think of him much."

"I do not see that," said the mother, keen to defend her daughter
from what might seem to be an implied reproach. "George Hotspur is a
man who will make himself thought of wherever he goes. He is clever,
and very amusing;--there is no denying that. And then he has the
Hotspur look all over."

"I wish he had never set his foot within the house," said the father.

"My dear, there is no such danger as you think," said Lady Elizabeth.
"Emily is not a girl prone to fall in love at a moment's notice
because a man is good-looking and amusing;--and certainly not with
the conviction which she must have that her doing so would greatly
grieve you." Sir Harry believed in his daughter, and said no more;
but he thoroughly wished that Lord Alfred's wedding-day was fixed.

"Mamma," said Emily, on the following day, "won't Lord Alfred be very
dull