nly felt that he was on dangerous ground.

"Depend upon 't, Fogles, my daughter is in the best society of the
place, whatever it is. It 's not a Dalton would be left out."

Foglass repeated his most implicit conviction in this belief, and did
all in his power to efface the memory of the suggestion, but without
success. Family pride was a kind of birdlime with old Dalton, and if he
but touched, he could not leave it. The consequences, however, went no
further than a long and intricate dissertation on the Dalton blood for
several centuries back, through which Foglass slept just as soundly as
the respected individuals there recorded, and was only awoke at last
by Dalton rising to take leave, an event at last suggested by the empty
decanter.

"And now, Fogles," said he, summing up, "you'll not wonder, that if we
're poor we 're proud. I suppose you never heard of a better stock than
that since you were born?"

"Never, by Jove! Guelphs, Ghibellines, and Hapsburgs are nothing to
them. Good-night, good-night! I 'll take care of your letter. It shall
go to-morrow in the Embassy bag."

CHAPTER XXXII. AN INVASION.

To afford the reader the explanation contained in the preceding chapter,
we have been obliged to leave Kate Dalton waiting, in mingled anxiety
and suspense, for the hour of Mrs. Ricketts's visit. Although her mind
principally dwelt upon the letter which had been announced as coming
from her father, an event so strange as naturally to cause astonishment,
she also occasionally recurred to the awkwardness of receiving persons
whom Lady Hester had so scrupulously avoided, and being involved in an
acquaintanceship so unequivocally pronounced vulgar. A few short months
before, and the incident would have worn a very different aspect to
her eyes. She would have dwelt alone on the kindness of one, an utter
stranger, addressing her in terms of respectful civility, and proffering
the attention of a visit. She would have been grateful for the
goodnature that took charge of a communication for her. She would have
viewed the whole as a sort of flattering notice, and never dreamed of
that long catalogue of "inconveniences" and annoyances so prolifically
associated with the event as it at present stood. She was greatly
changed in many respects. She had been daily accustomed to hear the
most outrageous moral derelictions lightly treated, or, at least, but
slightly censured. For every fault and failing there was a skilful