decidedly."

"Exactly; it would only lead to heroics, and deepen the mischief."

"Hang it! Then what do you want me to say?"

"Stand up for your rights, and reduce him to submission by
displeasure at not having been consulted. Then explain how there
can be no engagement at once; put him on his honour to leave her
free till after her birthday in November."

"What! have him dangling after her? That's no way to make her
forget him."

"She never will under direct opposition--she is too high-spirited
for that; but if we leave it alone, and they are unpledged, there is
a fair chance of her seeing the folly both for her and for him."

"I don't know that. Lena may be high-flown; but things go deep with
the child--deeper than they did with you, Camilla!"

Perhaps this was a stab, for there was bitterness in the answer.
"You mean that she is less willing to give up a fancy for the family
good. Remember, it is doubly imperative that Lena should marry a
man whose means are in his own power, so that he could advance
something. This would be simply ruin--throwing up the whole thing,
after all I have done to retrieve our position."

"After all, Camilla, I am growing an old man, and poor Tom is gone.
I don't know that the position is worth so much to me as the