ask this plain question--Do you, by these reflections, mean to allude to
any particular persons? Is there any woman in the world you at this
instant would wish me to marry?"

"Yes--Miss Walsingham."

Mr. Beaumont started with joyful surprise, when his mother thus
immediately pronounced the very name he wished to hear.

"You surprise and delight me, my dear mother!"

"Surprise!--How can that be?--Surely you must know my high opinion of
Miss Walsingham. But----"

"But--you added _but_----"

"There is no woman who may not be taxed with a _but_--yet it is not for
her friend to lower her merit. My only objection to her is--I shall
infallibly affront you, if I name it."

"Name it! name it! You will not affront me."

"My only objection to her then is, her superiority. She is so superior,
that, forgive me, I don't know any man, yourself not excepted, who is at
all her equal."

"I think precisely as you do, and rejoice."

"Rejoice? why there I cannot sympathize with you. I own, as a mother, I
should feel a little--a little mortified to see my son not the superior;