us Fergus Malcolm, Earl of Glenlivat,
and grandson and heir of Malcolm Mungo Angus, first Marquis of
Farintosh, and twenty-fifth Earl, etc. etc.

"You have heard the news regarding Ethel?" remarks Hobson.

"I have just heard," says the poor Colonel.

"I have a letter from Anne this morning," Maria continues. "They are of
course delighted with the match. Lord Farintosh is wealthy, handsome;
has been a little wild, I hear; is not such a husband as I would choose
for my darlings, but poor Brian's family have been educated to love the
world; and Ethel no doubt is flattered by the prospects before her. I
have heard that some one else was a little epris in that quarter. How
does Clive bear the news, my dear Colonel?"

"He has long expected it," says the Colonel, rising: "and I left him
very cheerful at breakfast this morning."

"Send him to see us, the naughty boy!" cries Maria. "We don't change;
we remember old times, to us he will ever be welcome!" And with this
confirmation of Madame de Florac's news, Thomas Newcome walked sadly
homewards.

And now Thomas Newcome had to break the news to his son; who received
the shot in such a way as caused his friends and confidants to
admire his high spirit. He said he had long been expecting some such
announcement: it was many months since Ethel had prepared him for
it. Under her peculiar circumstances he did not see how she could
act otherwise than she had done. And he narrated to the Colonel the
substance of the conversation which the two young people had had
together several months before, in Madame de Florac's garden.

Clive's father did not tell his son of his own bootless negotiation with
Barnes Newcome. There was no need to recall that now; but the Colonel's
wrath against his nephew exploded in conversation with me, who was the
confidant of father and son in this business. Ever since that luckless
day when Barnes thought proper to--to give a wrong address for Lady
Kew, Thomas Newcome's anger had been growing. He smothered it yet for a
while, sent a letter to Lady Anne Newcome, briefly congratulating her
on the choice which he had heard Miss Newcome had made; and in
acknowledgment of Madame de Florac's more sentimental epistle he wrote a
reply which has not been preserved, but in which he bade her rebuke Miss
Newcome for not having answered him when he wrote to her, and not having
acquainted her old uncle with her projected union.

To this message, Ethel wrote back a bri