suppose I shall not see that now.
I shall be eighty-one next November. Mind that you drink my health on
the 22nd, if I be alive. I could send you the pony if you thought it
would not be too expensive to keep him in London. Tilney is looking
beautiful, and the trees are budding as if it were spring. Drop me
a line before you leave the neighborhood; and believe me, your
affectionate godmother,

"'Dinah Maxwell.'

"I think I had better say I'll send an answer," said Skeffy, as he
crumpled up the letter; "and as to the enclosure--"

A wild scream and some unintelligible utterance broke from the parrot at
this instant.

"Yes, you beggar, 'you wish I may get it' By the way, the servant can
take that fellow back with him; I am right glad to be rid of him."

"It's the old adage of the ill wind," said Tony, laughing.

"How so? What do you mean?"

"I mean that _your_ ill-luck is _our_ good fortune; for as you can't go
to Tilney, you'll have to stay the longer with us."

Skeffy seized his hand and gave it a cordial shake, and the two young
fellows looked fully and frankly at each other, as men do look before
the game of life has caught too strong a hold upon their hearts, and
taught them over-anxiety to rise winners from it.

"Now, then, for your chateau," said Skeffy, as he leaped up on the car,
already half hidden beneath his luggage.

"Our chateau is a thatched cabin," said Tony, blushing in spite of all
his attempts to seem at ease. "It is only a friend would have heart to
face its humble fare."

Not heeding, if he even heard the remark, Skeffy rattled on about
everything,--past, present, and future; talked of their jolly dinner
at Richmond, and of each of their companions on that gay day; asked the
names of the various places they passed on the road, what were the usual
fortunes of the proprietors, how they spent them; and, seldom waiting
for the answer, started some new query, to be forgotten in its turn.

"It is a finer country to ride over," said Tony, anxious to say
something favorable for his locality, "than to look at. It is not
pretty, perhaps, but there's plenty of grass, and no end of stone walls
to jump, and in the season there's some capital trout-fishing too."

"Don't care a copper for either. I'd rather see a new pantomime than
the best stag-hunt in Europe. I 'd rather see Tom Salter do the double
spring backwards than I 'd see them take a whale."

"I 'm not of your mind, then," said Tony. "I 'd