he agitation
might occasion his father, and how seriously the parting might affect
a constitution so impressionable as his, but to no purpose; he coldly
replies, 'Nothing short of my father's refusal to see me shall prevent
my coming to see him,' or 'embrace him,' or--I forget the words, but the
meaning is, that come he will, and that his arrival may be counted on
before the end of the week."

"What stay will he make?"

"He speaks of three or four days at farthest We can learn the limit
easily enough by the time of the P. and O. steamer's sailing. Ask for it
at the banker's."

"I don't call in there now," said he, peevishly. "Since they took down
my name for the Club-ballot, I have not gone to the bank."

She sighed heavily; there was more than one care on her heart, and that
sigh gathered in a whole group of anxieties.

"They have got up all sorts of stories about us; and it is always out
of these false attacks of scandal comes the real assault that storms the
citadel."

She sighed again, but did not speak.

"So long as Heathcote keeps the house and sees nobody, all may go on
well; but let him be about again, able to ramble amongst the galleries
and churches, he is certain to meet some amiable acquaintance, who will
startle him with a few home truths. I tell you again, we are banqueting
over a powder-magazine; and even as to the marriage itself, I don't like
it. Are you aware of the amount he is able to settle? I couldn't believe
my eyes when I read the draft. It is neither more nor less than eight
thousand pounds. Fancy taking such a husband for eight thousand pounds!"

"You scarcely put the case fairly, papa," said she, smiling; "the eight
thousand is the compensation for losing him."

"Are you in love with him, then?" asked he, with a sarcastic twinkle of
the eye.

"I don't think so,--at least, not to desperation."

"It is scarcely for the sake of being 'My Lady.'"

"Oh dear, no; _that_ is a snobbery quite beyond me. Now, I neither marry
for the title, nor the man, nor his money, nor his station; but out
of that mass of motives which to certain women have the force of a
principle. I can explain what I mean, perhaps, by an illustration: Were
you to tell a fashionable physician, in first-rate practice, that if
he got up out of bed at midnight, and drove off two miles to a certain
corner of Regent's Park, where under a particular stone he 'd find a
guinea, it is more than certain he 'd not stir; but if y