purpose of writing such letter after Lady Pomona had refused her
assistance. And moreover,--Lady Pomona had received no former hint of
the information which was now conveyed to her,--Georgiana was in the
habit of meeting the curate of the next parish almost every day in the
park.

'Mr Batherbolt!' exclaimed Lady Pomona.

'She is walking with Mr Batherbolt almost every day.'

'But he is so very strict.'

'It is true, mamma.'

'And he's five years younger than she! And he's got nothing but his
curacy! And he's a celibate! I heard the bishop laughing at him
because he called himself a celibate.'

'It doesn't signify, mamma. I know she is with him constantly. Wilson
has seen them,--and I know it. Perhaps papa could get him a living.
Dolly has a living of his own that came to him with his property.'

'Dolly would be sure to sell the presentation,' said Lady Pomona.

'Perhaps the bishop would do something,' said the anxious sister,
'when he found that the man wasn't a celibate. Anything, mamma, would
be better than the Jew.' To this latter proposition Lady Pomona gave a
cordial assent. 'Of course it is a come-down to marry a curate,--but a
clergyman is always considered to be decent.'

The preparations for the Whitstable marriage went on without any
apparent attention to the intimacy which was growing up between Mr
Batherbolt and Georgiana. There was no room to apprehend anything
wrong on that side. Mr Batherbolt was so excellent a young man, and so
exclusively given to religion, that, even should Sophy's suspicion be
correct, he might be trusted to walk about the park with Georgiana.
Should he at any time come forward and ask to be allowed to make the
lady his wife, there would be no disgrace in the matter. He was a
clergyman and a gentleman,--and the poverty would be Georgiana's own
affair.

Mr Longestaffe returned home only on the eve of his eldest daughter's
marriage, and with him came Dolly. Great trouble had been taken to
teach him that duty absolutely required his presence at his sister's
marriage, and he had at last consented to be there. It is not
generally considered a hardship by a young man that he should have to
go into a good partridge country on the 1st of September, and Dolly
was an acknowledged sportsman. Nevertheless, he considered that he had
made a great sacrifice to his family, and he was received by Lady
Pomona as though he were a bright example to other sons. He found the
house not in a ve