while Henrietta was conducted through a rapid whirl of sight-seeing by
Beatrice and Uncle Geoffrey, the latter of whom, to his niece's great
amazement, professed to find almost as much novelty in the sights as
she did. A short December day, though not what they would have chosen,
had this advantage, that the victim could not be as completely fagged
and worn out as in a summer's day, and Henrietta was still fresh and in
high spirits when they drove home and found to their delight that the
two schoolboys had already arrived.

Beatrice met both alike as old friends and almost brothers, but
Alexander, though returning her greeting with equal cordiality, looked
shyly at the new aunt and cousin, and as Henrietta suspected, wished
them elsewhere. She had heard much of him from Beatrice, and knew that
her brother regarded him as a formidable rival; and she was therefore
surprised to see that his broad honest face expressed more good humour
than intellect, and his manners wanted polish. He was tolerably well-
featured, with light eyes and dark hair, and though half a year older
than his cousin, was much shorter, more perhaps in appearance than
reality, from the breadth and squareness of his shoulders, and from not
carrying himself well.

Alexander was, as ought previously to have been recorded, the third son
of Mr. Roger Langford, the heir of Knight Sutton, at present living at
Sutton Leigh, a small house on his father's estate, busied with
farming, sporting, and parish business; while his active wife contrived
to make a narrow income feed, clothe, and at least half educate their
endless tribe of boys. Roger, the eldest, was at sea; Frederick, the
second, in India; and Alexander owed his more learned education to
Uncle Geoffrey, who had been well recompensed by his industry and good
conduct. Indeed his attainments had always been so superior to those