Jekyl says," cried Purvis, in a
tone of most imploring cadence.

"And who may Miss Dalton be?" asked Mrs. Ricketts.

"She is the niece no, she's the aunt or rather her father is aunt to
to--"

"He may be an old lady, sir; but, surely--"

"Oh, I have it now!" broke in Purvis. "It was her mother; Miss
Da-a-alton's mother was uncle to a Stafford."

"Perhaps I can shorten the pedigree," said Haggerstone, tartly. "The
young lady is the daughter of a man whom this same Sir Stafford tricked
out of his fortune; they were distant relatives, so he had n't even the
plea of blood-relationship to cover his iniquity. It was, however, an
Irish fortune, and, like a Spanish chateau, its loss is more a question
of feeling than of fact. The lawyers still say that Dalton's right is
unimpeachable, and that the Onslows have not even the shadow of a case
for a jury."

"An' have de lady no broder nor sister?" asked the Count, who had heard
this story with much attention.

"She has, sir, both brother and sister, but both illegitimate, so that
this girl is the heiress to the estate."

"And probably destined to be the wife of the young Guardsman," said Mrs.
Ricketts.

"Guessed with your habitual perspicuity, madam," said Haggerstone,
bowing.

"How very shocking! What worldliness one sees everywhere!" cried she,
plaintively.

"The world is excessively worldly, madam," rejoined Haggerstone; "but I
really believe that we are not a jot worse than were the patriarchs of
old."

"Ah, oui, les patriarches!" echoed the Pole, laughing, and always ready
to seize upon an allusion that savored of irreverence.

"Count! Colonel Haggerstone!" cried Mrs. Ricketts, in reproof, and
with a look to where Martha sat at her embroidery-frame. "And this Miss
Dalton is she pretty?"

"She is pretty at this moment, madam; but, with a clever hairdresser
and a good milliner, would be downright beautiful. Of course these
are adjuncts she is little likely to find during her sojourn with the
Onslows."

"Poor thing! how glad one would be to offer her a kinder asylum," said
Mrs. Ricketts, while she threw her eyes over the cracked china
monsters and mock Vandykes around her; "a home," added she, "where
intellectuality and refinement might compensate for the vulgar pleasures
of mere wealth!"

"She may want such, one of these days, yet, or I'm much mistaken," said
Haggerstone. "Onslow has got himself very deep in railway speculations;
he has heavy liabilities