that you would like her
people. Father and mother she has none."

"Then I cannot dislike them."

"But she has uncles and aunts, who are, I am afraid, objectionable.
She lives with a Mr. Dosett, who is a clerk in Somerset House,--a
respectable man, no doubt, but one whom you would not perhaps want at
your house very often."

"I don't care about uncles and aunts," said Captain Batsby. "Uncles
and aunts can always be dropped much easier than fathers and mothers.
At any rate I am determined to go on, and I want you to put me in the
way. How must I find her?"

"Go to No. 10, Kingsbury Crescent, Bayswater. Ask for Mrs. Dosett and
tell her what you've come about. When she knows that you are well
off she will not turn a deaf ear to you. What the girl may do it is
beyond me to say. She is very peculiar."

"Peculiar?" said the Captain with another sigh.

Lady Albury did, in truth, think Ayala was very peculiar, seeing that
she had refused two such men as Tom Tringle in spite of his wealth,
and Colonel Stubbs in spite of his position. This she had done though
she had no prospects of her own before her, and no comfortable home
at the present. Might it not be more than probable that she would
also refuse Captain Batsby, who was less rich than the one and
certainly less known to the world than the other? But as to this it
was not necessary that she should say anything. To assist Colonel
Stubbs she was bound by true affection for the man. In regard to her
husband's half-brother she was only bound to seem to assist him. "I
can write a line to Mrs. Dosett, if you wish it," she said, "or to
Miss Dormer."

"I wish you would. It would be best to the aunt, and just tell her
that I am fairly well off. She'll tell Ayala I could make quite a
proper settlement on her. That kind of thing does go a long way with
young ladies."

"It ought to do at any rate," said Lady Albury. "It certainly does
with the old ladies." Then the matter was settled. She was to write
to Mrs. Dosett and inform that lady that Captain Batsby intended to
call in Kingsbury Crescent in the form of a suitor for Miss Ayala
Dormer's hand. She would go on to explain that Captain Batsby was
quite in a position to marry and maintain a wife.

"And if she should accept me you'll have her down here, Rosalind?"
Here was a difficulty, as it was already understood that Ayala was to
be again brought down to Stalham on the Colonel's account; but Lady
Albury could make the pro