She must get rid of that fair young man with the
silky moustache and the darling dimple. The sallow, the sublime, and
the Werter-faced must be made to take the place of laughing eyes and
pink cheeks. She did work very hard, and sometimes, as she thought,
successfully. She came to a positive conclusion that he was the
handsomest man she ever saw, and that she certainly liked the few grey
hairs. That his manner was thoroughly noble no one could doubt. If he
were seen merely walking down the street he would surely be taken for a
great man. He was one of whom, as her husband, she could be always
proud;--and that she felt to be a great thing. That he would not play
lawn tennis, and that he did not care for riding were points in his
character to be regretted. Indeed, though she made some tenderly
cautious inquiries, she could not find what were his amusements. She
herself was passionately fond of dancing, but he certainly did not
dance. He talked to her, when he did talk, chiefly of his family, of
his own poverty, of the goodness of his mother and sisters, and of the
great regret which they all felt that they should have been deserted by
the head of their family.

"He has now been away," said Lord George, "for ten years; but not
improbably he may return soon, and then we shall have to leave Manor
Cross."

"Leave Manor Cross!"

"Of course we must do so should he come home. The place belongs to him,
and we are only there because it has not suited him to reside in
England."

This he said with the utmost solemnity, and the statement had been
produced by the answer which the Marquis had made to a letter
announcing to him his brother's marriage. The Marquis had never been a
good correspondent. To the ladies of the house he never wrote at all,
though Lady Sarah favoured him with a periodical quarterly letter. To
his agent, and less frequently to his brother, he would write curt,
questions on business, never covering more than one side of a sheet of
notepaper, and always signed "Yours, B." To these the inmates of Manor
Cross had now become accustomed, and little was thought of them; but on
this occasion he had written three or four complete sentences, which
had been intended to have, and which did have, a plain meaning. He
congratulated his brother, but begged Lord George to bear in mind that
he himself might not improbably want Manor Cross for his own purpose
before long. If Lord George thought it would be agreeable, Mr. Knox,