"Any more than of Prince Eugene?" said Harriet, laughing.

"But oh! sister!" cried Aurelia, "let us stay a little longer. I have
not half braided my hair, and I long to hear who is the gentleman of
whom my father spoke as living in the dark."

"Mr. Amyas Belamour! Sir Jovian's brother! Ah! that is a sad story,"
replied Betty, "though I am not certain that I have it correctly,
having only heard it discussed between my father and mother when I was
a growing girl, sitting at my sampler. I think he was a barrister; I
know he was a very fine gentleman and a man of parts, who had made the
Grand Tour; for when he was staying at the Great House, he said my
mother was the only person he met who could converse with him on the
Old Masters, or any other subject of _virtu_, and that, being reported
to my Lady, increased her bitterness all the more because Mr. Belamour
was a friend of Mr. Addison and Sir Richard Steele, and had contributed
some papers to the _Spectator_. He was making a good fortune in his
profession, and had formed an engagement with a young lady in
Hertfordshire, of a good old family, but one which had always been
disliked by Lady Belamour. It is said, too, that Miss Sedhurst had
been thought to have attracted one of my Lady's many admirers, and
that the latter was determined not to see her rival become her sister-
in-law, and probably with the same title, since Mr. Belamour was on
the verge of obtaining knighthood. So, if she be not greatly belied,
Lady Belamour plied all parties with her confidences, till she
contrived to breed suspicion and jealousy on all sides, until finally
Miss Sedhurst's brother, a crack-brained youth, offered such an insult
to Mr. Belamour, that honour required a challenge. It was thought that
as Mr. Belamour was the superior in age and position, the matter might