is there no young lady in the case?"

"Young lady! in what case;--in the case of my quarrel with old
Tappitt;--whether he and I have had a difference about a young lady?"

"No, Luke; you know I don't mean that."

"But what do you mean, mother?"

"I'm afraid that you know too well. Is there not a young lady whom
you've met at Mrs. Tappitt's, and whom you--you pretend to admire?"

"And suppose there is,--for the sake of the argument,--what has that
to do with my difference with Mr. Tappitt?" As Rowan asked this
question some slight conception of the truth flashed across his mind;
some faint idea came home to him of the connecting link between his
admiration for Rachel Ray and Mr. Tappitt's animosity.

"But is it so, Luke?" asked the anxious mother. "I care much more
about that than I do about all the brewery put together. Nothing
would make me so wretched as to see you make a marriage that was
beneath you."

"I don't think I shall ever make you wretched in that way."

"And you tell me that there is nothing in this that I have
heard;--nothing at all."

"No, by heavens!--I tell you no such thing. I do not know what you
may have heard. That you have heard falsehood and calumny I guess by
your speaking of a marriage that would be beneath me. But, as you
think it right to ask me, I will not deceive you by any subterfuge.
It is my purpose to ask a girl here in Baslehurst to be my wife."

"Then you have not asked her yet."

"You are cross-examining me very closely, mother. If I have not asked
her I am bound to do so; not that any binding is necessary,--for
without being bound I certainly should do so."

"And it is Miss Ray?"

"Yes, it is Miss Ray."

"Oh, Luke, then indeed I shall be very wretched."

"Why so, mother? Have you heard anything against her?"

"Against her! well; I will not say that, for I do not wish to say
anything against any young woman. But do you know who she is, Luke;
and who her mother is? They are quite poor people."

"And is that against them?"

"Not against their moral character certainly, but it is against them
in considering the expediency of a connection with them. You would
hardly wish to marry out of your own station. I am told that the
mother lives in a little cottage, quite in a humble sphere, and that
the sister--"

"I intend to marry neither the mother nor the sister; but Rachel Ray
I do intend to marry,--if she will have me. If I had been left to
myself I should not have t