le, nobody
is of a good family. Didn't that young man, that son of the Colonel's,
go about last year? How did he get in society? Where did we meet him?
Oh! at Baden, yes; when Barnes was courting, and my grandson--yes, my
grandson, acted so wickedly." Here she began to cough, and to tremble
so, that her old stick shook under her hand. "Ring the bell for Ross.
Ross, I will go to bed. Go you too, Ethel. You have been travelling
enough to-day."

"Her memory seems to fail her a little," Ethel whispered to her brother;
"or she will only remember what she wishes. Don't you see that she has
grown very much older?"

"I will be with her in the morning. I have business with her," said
Barnes.

"Good night. Give my love to Clara, and kiss the little ones for me.
Have you done what you promised me, Barnes?"

"What?"

"To be--to be kind to Clara. Don't say cruel things to her. She has a
high spirit, and she feels them, though she says nothing."

"Doesn't she?" said Barnes, grimly.

"Ah, Barnes, be gentle with her. Seldom as I saw you together, when I
lived with you in the spring, I could see that you were harsh, though
she affected to laugh when she spoke of your conduct to her. Be kind.
I am sure it is the best, Barnes; better than all the wit in the world.
Look at grandmamma, how witty she was and is; what a reputation she had,
how people were afraid of her; and see her now--quite alone."

"I'll see her in the morning quite alone, my dear," says Barnes, waving
a little gloved hand. "Bye-bye!" and his brougham drove away. While
Ethel Newcome had been under her brother's roof, where I and friend
Clive, and scores of others, had been smartly entertained, there had
been quarrels and recriminations, misery and heart-burning, cruel words
and shameful struggles, the wretched combatants in which appeared before
the world with smiling faces, resuming their battle when the feast was
concluded and the company gone.

On the next morning, when Barnes came to visit his grandmother, Miss
Newcome was gone away to see her sister-in-law, Lady Kew said, with
whom she was going to pass the morning; so Barnes and Lady Kew had an
uninterrupted tete-a-tete, in which the former acquainted the old lady
with the proposal which Colonel Newcome had made to him on the previous
night.

Lady Kew wondered what the impudence of the world's would come to. An
artist propose for Ethel! One of her footmen might propose next, and she
supposed Barnes woul