evoked upon the face of her hostess. That lady began to have a very different opinion of Charlie from that she had formed of him when she had first made his acquaintance in the belief that he was Sir Richard's heir. Under the cloak of openness and good-humour she beheld an audacious and designing young man. It was downright impertinence in such a detrimental to be so much at ease with an heiress; but she had sufficient intelligence to perceive that there might be a prospect of success for him through the very simplicity of his method of attack; while others were advancing their parallels, he might carry the citadel by a coup de main. She understood, too, that Mrs. Westrop, with her natural leaning to Bohemianism and antagonism to the proprieties, was assisting him in his unhallowed scheme. No doubt she would one day demand her quid pro quo in a percentage on the profits of the transaction.

In this, as we know, Lady Joddrell did wrong to at least one of the parties concerned; and, what was more surprising, even Mrs. Westrop herself fell into error as regarded her new protégé's intentions.

'I am glad to see, Charles,' she whispered fervently, 'that you are at present heart-whole.'

'You must mean that I have a hole in my heart,' he answered plaintively.

'No, no; now do be serious, if you can, for a little. You know I wish you well, and it may be of great importance to you. I say I am glad to see that you are not like every other man who sets eyes on her-enslaved by your Rector's daughter.'

Charles's eye wandered for a fleeting instant to Lucy, with a twinkle of merriment, then settled down upon her sister.

'Yes, I've watched you, and this is the first time you have looked her way; it's a great relief to my mind, I assure you, for such an attachment in one in your position would be madness.' 'She would let me know that, herself, I think, if I ventured

'Oh, she's rejected you already, has she?' put in Mrs. Westrop quietly. 'Well, so much the better. That girl, if I am not mistaken, is flying at high game. Even Mr. Lascelles, you see, is not good enough for her; it is quite on the cards, however, that she has already hooked her fish. In that case you must know it, of course. Has she?'

Here she flashed a glance at him which would have befitted the acutest cross-examiner at the bar; though mundane enough in its spirit, it seemed to read his very soul.

She may have hooked him, but she has certainly not landed him,' answered Charlie, laughing.

But she will land him, as sure as he lives,' continued Mrs. Westrop confidently. That will be a sad disappointment to

your mother, you know: "He might have looked a little higher," she will say, like the mother-in-law in the ballad. It must be dreadful to her to have such a female detrimental in her own village.'

"They seem to get on, however, pretty well together,' observed Charlie, a little stiffly; he was not annoyed at this plain speaking upon Clara's account, and still less upon his mother's, but by reason of the indirect reflection it cast on Lucy. If her sister was a 'detrimental'-a term which he was far from resenting as applied to himself, but which he thought ill-befitting a young lady-Lucy was a detrimental too.

'Of course they get on now; it is for the interest of neither to quarrel with the other at present; but they are both standing upon a Vesuvius, the crust of which is of the thinnest.'

Let us say on an Etna-as advertised at three-and-six,' returned Charlie drily; 'it sounds more domestic.' 'Now you're angry,' said Mrs. Westrop.

'Not a bit of it; only melodrama is out of my line.'

'Well, it isn't much in mine; but I wish I could teach you to be a little more serious. Life isn't all beer and skittles, as my poor husband used to say too late; for it was skittles that ruined him.' She uttered a little sigh at the remembrance, while Charlie shook with inward mirth. Now you're in a good humour again,' she continued, quite unruffled, 'I wish to say that my little cottage is open to you, sir, whenever you choose to make a call. It may be well worth your while, I do assure you.' "You are most kind, I'm sure,' he answered gratefully, but with a certain hesitation of manner.

'You needn't be afraid,' she whispered. Mary Anne will not take you for a mere fortune-hunter. She is much more sensible than she looks-Lady Joddrell is trying to catch your mother's eye. Fortunately for her, she does not labour under the usual disadvantage of having to listen to her neighbour's conversation at the same time, for Sir Richard hasn't opened his mouth to her this half-hour. How bored he looks, and no wonder!- Now we're off. We shall meet in the garden presently, sir for I've made up my mind to get into the garden.'

'Then you will certainly do it,' said Charlie, laughing, as Mrs. Westrop sailed out of the room with her heiress, like a frigate in convoy of an Indiaman.

CHAPTER XXVI.

AFTER DINNER.

'SIR RICHARD, what are you taking?' inquired young Mr. Joddrell, with a glance at the decanters, which were delaying in front of the Baronet like vessels waiting in the Downs for a wind

'No more wine, thank you. I will take a cup of coffee presently, and in the meantime, with your permission, a cigar.' And, without waiting for a reply, he took out his case, and lit

one.

In the country Civilization progresses with slower steps than in London. It was the custom at Catesby to consume certain magnums of claret after dinner, as in the Dark Ages, and to converse learnedly of the vintage to which it belonged. The great legal luminary (extinct) who had reigned there had not been a smoker, and the Chief Baroness, out of respect for his memory (and also because she hated tobacco), forbade the usual weed, except in the smoking-room. The elder guests professed the same old-fashioned opinions, and were inclined to murmur at this innovation, which they suspected might cut off the usual supply of their favourite liquor. The younger men, including the host, were, on the other hand, in favour of it, and in their hearts regarded its audacious proposer as a benefactor of his species.

It's rather early for the cigars, is it not, Sir Richard?' remonstrated the M.F.H.

'It's not too early,' was the Baronet's calm reply. 'For my part, I look upon dinner-and also on every other meal-as a mere preparation for smoking.'

Hugh Trevor, dutiful in one respect, had already followed his father's example, and lit his cigar.

Then I really think we had better have the windows open,' observed Mr. Lascelles, with a puff of discontent.

Just so; you are quite right to think of Lady Joddrell's curtains,' said Sir Richard blandly. He was irritated, like Hotspur by the fop who objected to the smell of gunpowder.

This proposal was carried into effect at once. Instead of the lace curtains and the gilt shutters they half concealed, the noble terrace with its rows of flowers, and the trim lawn sloping down to the park below, displayed their cool loveliness to view. It was a transformation scene that was welcome to everybody, even the old fogies, though they were disinclined to confess it.

'I hope I am not scandalizing you, Joddrell,' said Sir Richard apologetically,' by my foreign habits.'

The young man hastened to observe that so far from being scandalized, he thought the opening of the windows was a great improvement; as to the smoking, however, he thought of his lady mother, and the row there would be about it next morning, and was silent. Sir Richard fathomed his thoughts.

Try one of my cigars,' he continued wickedly. 'I think you will like the brand;' and he passed one over to him. The young gentleman took the forbidden fruit, not, indeed, without a pang of scruple, but nothing loath.

In two minutes all his younger guests were smoking. Sir

Richard had placed himself at the head of the social revolution. It proved successful, and from that moment he was revered accordingly; but not without provoking some enmity.

'I believe that fellow will smoke upon the bench of magistrates,' whispered the M.F.H. to Mr. Lascelles.

'If he does, begad, I'll commit him,' was the grim response. The old gentlemen, indeed, were a great deal put out.

'Do you think this is the right claret?' whispered the Chairman doubtfully; or has this infernal smoke spoilt my palate ?' 'What do you mean? Do you think it is not the old bin?' ejaculated the M.F.H., aghast.

I am not sure. The Chief Baroness is quite capable of putting us off with an inferior article.'

Then they drank slowly and homoeopathically, with their old heads thrown back like a couple of ducks, till they had convinced themselves there was no mistake; when their ruffled feathers sank peacefully down, and they set to work in earnest. 'Your brother seemed to be getting on uncommonly well with the heiress,' murmured one of the younger Joddrells to Hugh, under the impression he was saying something pleasant.

'I dare say.

She looks easy to please.'

'Yes, up to a certain point; but I find one doesn't get much further with her.'

'Very likely.'

The simple youth, unconscious of sarcasm, pursued his theme. 'She does not give herself airs, however, I will say for her. Don't you think, considering what a pot of money she's got, that she's rather good-looking-what one would call in Scotland a bonnie girl?'

'Not bonnie-bony,' was the uncompromising reply: and it closed the conversation.

The report that young Joddrell gave of Mr. Hugh Trevor to his contemporaries in the county, though less diplomatically expressed than those in use at the Foreign Office, was accurate and comprehensive :

'A clever fellow enough; but sulky as a dipped cat, and damned disagreeable.'

Charlie, on the other hand, made friends with everybody, though less inclined for talk than usual. He was still feeding on the last look that Lucy had cast at him as she left the room, and he had also Mrs. Westrop's words to think about: 'My little cottage is open to you whenever you may make a call.' He well understood that this was not a mere vague invitation, and that, whatever other feelings might have prompted it, goodwill towards himself was largely mixed with them. If he should take advantage of her kindness, he felt he would be doing so on false pretences; while, if he ignored her proffered hospitality,

so acute a woman as Mrs. Westrop would make a shrewd guess at the reason why. As to being shaken in his allegiance to Lucy by the three-hundred-thousand-pounder, the idea of such a thing-but for the complications it might bring about-was ludicrous to him. Notwithstanding which, he liked the heiress -doubtless, none the less that she had shown a liking for himself, but chiefly for her simplicity and good-humour-and resented the familiar manner in which she was being discussed by the young gentlemen in his neighbourhood. If she had belonged to their own set, they would, doubtless, have been more respectful; but the claims of sex are not so readily acknowledged by our gilt youth as those of birth and lineage. Moreover, it was a disadvantage, from a social point of view, to Miss Mumchance that she had Mrs. Westrop for a chaperon-a lady who ruled less by love than fear. It was indelicately suggested that the widow 'financed' her, and would receive at least as high a commission upon the young lady's being favourably placed in the matrimonial market, as the percentage of profit which his keeping the tables at baccarat had given her unlamented papa. Charlie's sharp tongue would have done no little execution among these free speakers, and he was sorely tempted to use it, but for the consideration that his advocacy would have confirmed the general suspicion that he had earned some right to defend her.

Even his father took an opportunity of dropping a characteristic word of mock felicitation into his ear.

'Well, my boy, I congratulate you upon your good fortune, or rather upon the lady's. I hope you may some day be in the unique position of being able to lend your father a little money.'

In this case Charlie did venture upon a word of remonstrance. 'Really, father, I do think it is rather hard upon Miss Mumchance, who is an honest, simple girl, and has no more thought of marrying me than has Mrs. Westrop.'

'But that may be saying a great deal less than you think,' laughed Sir Richard; indeed, from what I saw of the goings on of you three, I am inclined to believe that the widow and she are rivals in your affections. I do hope you'll have the good sense to choose the younger.'

Something had happened since dinner which had a forded the Baronet much less ground for satisfaction. Mr. Lascelles, in discoursing of the Bench,' as usual, had expressed his hope that Sir Richard would give his fellow-magistrates all the help he could in putting down poaching. There's a pestilent fellow in your parish,' he said, 'of the name of Beeton, who has given us a mint of trouble.'

The instant the name was out of his mouth, the worthy Chairman of Quarter Sessions would have given twenty brace of