she replied: 'Well, to be sure, I did think of that myself! The Doctor's coat is just new, and dancing is very dusty work; and it did come across me that the brushing and rubbing afterwards would n't be good for it. But if I could be quite sure, ma'am, that dancing was to be, I'd persuade Mrs. Patty to give him his second-best; he doesn't know one from the other, good man, himself.'

'And so far he is an exception to his sex. Men are vain, Faith-much more vain than we have any idea of. I have a nephew, who used to spend half an hour every day arranging his neck-tie; but he is in India, poor fellow!' and Miss Medley sighed heavily. Dr. Kingsbury, you say, will leave before the dancing begins?'

'Dear me, ma'am, no; just the contrary. He takes pleasure in seeing the young people merry; and it's my belief, that if the dancing is late, he may be late too.'

The possibility was so alarming to Miss Medley's regularity, that she found herself compelled to sit down; and as Faith turned, apparently with the intention of going, she said, in a hurried tone: 'Pray wait - one moment only; I won't detain you, but I must consider. If the fly were to come for me first, if I were to return alone - eighteen-pence they would charge - it would be eighteen-pence, I think, Faith?'

'I can't say, ma'am; but the Doctor would be very sorry for you to trouble yourself upon such a matter as that. He and Mrs. Patty would be sure to let you come away whenever you choose. It's not like the Doctor to be putting his own pleasure in the way of other people's.'

'Not at all. He is a very remarkable instance of masculine unselfishness. You will appreciate such an exception more and more, Faith, as life brings you experience. But this matter of returning - it may be better to leave it. Possibly You said, I think, Faith, that there would be a large number of dancers?'

'I don't know that I said anything about it, ma'am; but there's Mr. Charles, the Colonel's nephew, just come from India, and the young gentlemen, Master John and Master William, home for Easter - that makes three; and then there's Mr. Edmund and Mr. Godfrey Cameron come down to the Hall - so I heard just before I came in here; and what with the Miss Verneys, and the niece who is there for the holidays, and Miss Cameron, and the other young ladies as are sure to be asked to the Colonel's-there will be such a number of young folks that Mrs. Patty said to me, as she gave me the message for you, they would be pretty nearly certain to dance; and if they did, the Doctor had such a fancy for music, and for seeing the young folks enjoy themselves, he'd be sure to be late. That's the long and the short of the matter, ma'am: but to think of its coming in your way never entered anybody's head; and I make bold to say you can leave at half-past nine if you wish it.'

'Oh, no, Faith! To break up the party-I could not do that. And I should like to see Mr. Verney. I am deeply interested in everything connected with

India: yet it perplexes me. Are you going into the village?'

'I've been thinking of it, ma'am; but I had not quite decided.'

'If you were going, -perhaps four yards of ribbon, peach-coloured satin-or gauze and satin might be best;-Lane has some, I know ;- it would brighten my cap. I am not used to gay parties, Faith; and they don't agree with me. But camomilla is very soothing: it enables me to do many things now which I never could do before; I never go anywhere without it.' Miss Medley dived into her pocket and took out a tiny bottle. 'Tinctures are best; but in their absence, globules.'

It was like presenting a pocket-pistol to Faith: she turned suddenly round, and, with a hasty 'Good morning, ma'am; I will leave the ribbon as I return,' departed.

Stormont was the name of Colonel Verney's house. It was a mile and a half from Yare, and was considered rather the show-place of the neighbourhood; for it had a grand hall, a very fair gallery of pictures, and a museum of Chinese curiosities, all exhibited to the public on certain days. Otherwise it was an uninteresting place, with but a few acres of park about it, and possessing no remarkable beauty either in the grounds, the gardens, or the view.

Colonel Verney was the most open-hearted and hospitable of country gentlemen; in politics a Whig so far, at least, as Whigism can still be considered to exist; in religion a professed Churchman, with as kindly a leaning towards dissent as was necessary for the sake of consistency with his political creed. He was a very popular man in the neighbourhood; indeed all the family were popular, except, perhaps, Mrs. Verney, and she was an exception only in the eyes of a few persons, amongst whom Myra was included. Mr. Cameron and Colonel Verney differed in politics, and this antagonism might have resulted in an open feud, had not the punctilious politeness of the former served as a check upon the ebullitions of temper of his good-natured though irritable opponent. Mr. Cameron was once heard to say to his boys, when, after an open fight and very abusive language, they were brought before him to be punished: 'Quarrel, boys, if you will; at your age I did it myself; but quarrel like gentlemen.' A very worldly-wise man was Mr. Cameron. This principle of quarrelling like a gentleman had served him in good stead on many trying occasions, and none more trying then when he was brought into open opposition to his nearest neighbour, Colonel Verney. One of the very few boasts which he had ever been heard to utter was, that throughout the many electioneering and magisterial contests in which they had been engaged, he had never uttered a word for which he could be called upon to make an apology.

Not so Colonel Verney; his words were hasty, his language strong, his epithets far from choice. He prided himself upon saying what he thought; it was the privilege of a free Englishman; but then, unfortunately, he very often said what he did not think, and it was on such occasions that Mr. Cameron gained the advantage. 'I leave to Colonel Verney

the command of words, and reserve to myself the command of temper,' was his reply to a very violent speech made by the former at an important public meeting; and the Colonel succumbed to the sarcasm, and not being gifted with that most rare and noble characteristic, the power of owning that he had been wrong, never recovered the ground he had lost, nor was again able to hold a position in the county of equal influence with that of Mr. Cameron.

The two Miss Verneys, or, as Miss Medley always took pains to call them, the Misses Verney, were bright and pleasant in manner, and partook of much of their father's good nature. Henrietta, who was about one-and-twenty, was the useful - Elise, who was three years younger, the ornamental-sister. And there were, as Faith had said, two brothers at Eton, rather common-place, but perhaps all the more likely to be favourites in general society, since they excited no envy and aroused no criticism. Colonel Verney's family might, indeed, have been a pattern of prosperous ease and self-content if only Mrs. Verney would have consented to leave it to itself; but the elements of ambition and energy which were wanting in her children existed strongly in herself. The world, her own little world especially, was regarded by her not as it was, but as it should be. She had an ideal for everything and everybody, and, unlike the generality of idealists, she spared no efforts to convert her fiction into a reality. Good, sensible, rather blunt Henrietta, essentially practical and matter-of-fact, was to be the deep-thinking studious daughter; and pretty bright little Elise, with

G