or his
wife--Miss Harris would have added, had she spoken all she thought.

"A poor way that of spending a man's time," said the Captain. "Now there
is Captain Jones in our regiment; they say he loves fighting as much as
eating: if he do, he is a bloodthirsty fellow."

"You know how intimate I am with your dear mother," continued the lady,
bent on the principal object; "she has made me acquainted with her
greatest wish."

"Her greatest wish!" cried the Captain, in astonishment; "why, what can
that be?--a new coach and horses?"

"No, I mean one much dearer to us--I should say, to her, than any such
trifles: she has told me of the _plan_."

"Plan!" said Jarvis, still in wonder, "what plan?"

"About the fund for the peerage, you know. Of course, the thing is sacred
with me, as, indeed, I am equally interested with you all in its success."

Jarvis eyed her with a knowing look, and as she concluded, rolling his
eyes in an expression of significance, he said--

"What, serve Sir William some such way, eh?"

"I will assist a little, if it be necessary, Henry," said the lady,
tenderly, "although my mite cannot amount to a great deal."

During this speech, the Captain was wondering what she could mean; but,
having had a suspicion, from something that had fallen from his mother,
that the lady was intended for him as a wife, and that she might be as
great a dupe as Lady Jarvis herself, he was resolved to know the whole,
and to act accordingly.

"I think it might be made to do," he replied, evasively in order to
discover the extent of his companion's information.

"Do!", cried Miss Harris, with fervor, "it cannot fail! How much do you
suppose will be wanting to buy a barony, for instance?"

"Hem!" said Jarvis; "you mean more than we have already?"

"Certainly."

"Why, about a thousand pounds, I think, will do it, with what we have,"
said Jarvis, affecting to calculate.

"Is that all?" cried the delighted Caroline; and the captain grew in an
instant, in her estimation, three inches higher;--quite noble in his air,
and, in short, very tolerably handsome.

From that moment, Miss Harris, in her own mind, had fixed the fate of
Captain Jarvis, and had determined to be his wife, whenever she could
persuade him to offer himself; a thing she had no doubt of accomplishing
with comparative ease. Not so the Captain. Like all weak men, there was
nothing of which he stood more in terror than of ridicule. He had heard
the mano