he had been almost in despair. It was her opinion
that had he properly understood his own position, he would have
promoted his welfare by falling in love with the daughter of some
English country gentleman,--or some English peer, to which honour,
with his advantages, Lady Milborough thought that he might have
aspired. Nevertheless, when the girl from the Mandarins had been
brought home as Mrs. Trevelyan, Lady Milborough had received her with
open arms,--had received even the sister-in-law with arms partly
open. Had either of them shown any tendency to regard her as a
mother, she would have showered motherly cares upon them. For Lady
Milborough was like an old hen, in her capacity for taking many
under her wings. The two sisters had hardly done more than bear
with her,--Nora, indeed, bearing with her more graciously than Mrs.
Trevelyan; and in return, even for this, the old dowager was full of
motherly regard. Now she knew well that Mr. Glascock was over head
and ears in love with Nora Rowley. It only wanted the slightest
management and the easiest discretion to bring him on his knees, with
an offer of his hand. And, then, how much that hand contained!--how
much, indeed, as compared with that other hand, which was to be given
in return, and which was,--to speak the truth,--completely empty! Mr.
Glascock was the heir to a peer, was the heir to a rich peer, was the
heir to a very, very old peer. He was in Parliament. The world spoke
well of him. He was not, so to say, by any means an old man himself.
He was good-tempered, reasonable, easily led, and yet by no means
despicable. On all subjects connected with land, he held an opinion
that was very much respected, and was supposed to be a thoroughly
good specimen of an upper-class Englishman. Here was a suitor! But it
was not to be supposed that such a man as Mr. Glascock would be so
violently in love as to propose to a girl whose nearest known friend
and female relation was misbehaving herself.

Only they who have closely watched the natural uneasiness of human
hens can understand how great was Lady Milborough's anxiety on
this occasion. Marriage to her was a thing always delightful to
contemplate. Though she had never been sordidly a match-maker, the
course of the world around her had taught her to regard men as fish
to be caught, and girls as the anglers who ought to catch them. Or,
rather, could her mind have been accurately analysed, it would have
been found that the gi