have me
or one of the children with her. And Mrs. Creed, marm, says she, if
you please, marm, you'll on no account leave the room when that young
gentleman's here. And many's the time I've seen him a lookin' as if
he wished I was away, poor young man: and he took to coming in
service-time, when I wasn't at home, of course: but she always had one
of the boys up if her Pa wasn't at home, or old Mr. Bowser with her a
teaching of her her lesson, or one of the young ladies of the theayter."

It was all true: whatever encouragements might have been given him
before he avowed his passion, the prudence of Miss Emily was prodigious
after Pen had declared himself: and the poor fellow chafed against her
hopeless reserve, which maintained his ardour as it excited his anger.

The Major surveyed the state of things with a sigh. "If it were but a
temporary liaison," the excellent man said, "one could bear it. A young
fellow must sow his wild oats, and that sort of thing. But a virtuous
attachment is the deuce. It comes of the d----d romantic notions boys
get from being brought up by women."

"Allow me to say, Major, that you speak a little too like a man of the
world," replied the Doctor. "Nothing can be more desirable for Pen
than a virtuous attachment for a young lady of his own rank and with
a corresponding fortune--this present infatuation, of course, I must
deplore as sincerely as you do. If I were his guardian I should command
him to give it up."

"The very means, I tell you, to make him marry to-morrow. We have got
time from him, that is all, and we must do our best with that.

"I say, Major," said the Doctor, at the end of the conversation in which
the above subject was discussed--"I am not, of course, a play-going
man--but suppose, I say, we go and see her."

The Major laughed--he had been a fortnight at Fairoaks, and strange to
say, had not thought of that. "Well," he said, "why not? After all, it
is not my niece, but Miss Fotheringay the actress, and we have as good
a right as any other of the public to see her if we pay our money." So
upon a day when it was arranged that Pen was to dine at home, and pass
the evening with his mother, the two elderly gentlemen drove over to
Chatteris in the Doctor's chaise, and there, like a couple of jolly
bachelors, dined at the George Inn, before proceeding to the play.

Only two other guests were in the room,--an officer of the regiment
quartered at Chatteris, and a young gentlem