"No, I am glad he will not come again. Yet it makes his uncle happy
to see him. I will keep out of the way if he does."

"Right too, miss. A young lady never loses by discretion."

"Oh, do not speak in--in that way," said Aurelia, blushing at the
implication. "Besides, he is going home with my Lady to dear
Carminster."

"No, no, he remains with his regiment in town, unless he rides down
later when he can have his leave of absence, and my Lady is at the
Bath. He will not if he can help it, for he is dead set against
the young lady they want to marry him to, and she is to be there.
What! you have not heard? It is my Lady Arabella, sister to that
there Colonel as is more about our house than I could wish. She is
not by the same mother as him and my Lord Aresfield. Her father
married a great heiress for his second wife, whose father had made a
great fortune by victualling the army in the war time. Not that this
Dowager Countess, as they call her, is a bit like the real quality,
so that it is a marvel how my Lady can put up with her; only money-
bags will make anything go down, more's the pity, and my Lady is
pressed, you see, with her losses at play. It was about this match
that Sir Amyas was sent down to Battlefield, the Countess's place
in Monmouthshire, when he came to Carminster last summer, and his
body servant, Mr. Grey, that has been about him from a child, told
me all about it. This Lady Belle, as they call her, is only about
fourteen, and such a spoilt little vixen, that they say nobody has
been able to teach her so much as to read, for her mother, the
Dowager, never would have her crossed in anything, and now she has
got too headstrong for any of 'em. Mr. Grey said dressing for