"I really beg your pardon!"

"Come, this is a novel way of making an offer, and, I hope, a successful
one."

"Julia, my dear," cried a voice in the veranda, "Julia, my dear, I want
you to walk with me."

"Say you are engaged with the Marchioness," whispered Vivian, with a low
but distinct--voice; his eyes fixed on the table, and his lips not
appearing to move.

"Mamma, I am--"

"I want you immediately and particularly, Julia," cried Lady Louisa, in
an earnest voice.

"I am coming, I am coming. You see I must go."




CHAPTER X


"Confusion on that old hag! Her eye looked evil on me, at the very
moment! Although a pretty wife is really the destruction of a young
man's prospects, still, in the present case, the niece of my friend, my
patron, high family, perfectly unexceptionable, &c. &c. &c. Such blue