The effrontery of this speech seemed to affect both the parties concerned. Lady Gertrude coloured deep red-then turned white-and gave evident signs of resentment. For want of something else, however, she fell to pulling a rose from her bosom, and tore it all to pieces; while Tremaine, who hated Miss Carysfort's mischievous meddling, so as to shudder at her very name, showed palpable marks of alarm, as well as of anger, from which he was not relieved even by the secession of his persecutrix; who went only, as she said, to bring Miss Carysfort to him.

The Lady Gertrude did not feel much happier. All exclusive as she was, having taken refuge with Georgina, she could not help condescending to notice her with a few words.

"What an odious, bold, impudent person!" said Lady Gertrude "don't you think so, Miss Evelyn?"

"I scarcely know her," answered Georgina, "but she seems to have great spirits."

"Horribly great, indeed," returned Lady Gertrude; "and I hate spirits they are so vulgar."

"Yet Mrs. Neville," remarked Georgina,

there is no harm in her."

"thinks

"That is very extraordinary," said Lady Gertrude, "for she always speaks of her to me with the utmost contempt."

Georgina, who was the most single-hearted creature alive, wondered at this; not adverting to the possibility of even a very great lady's accommodating herself to the tone of any companion she might wish to please; and not aware, that although Mrs. Neville revelled in wealth, yet she was still very far removed from that situation among the haute noblesse, that enviable point at the very head of fashion, which she affected, and which it was her fondest ambition to reach. This, however, may serve to explain the different modes, both of talking and acting towards Miss Lyttleton and Georgina, which belonged to Mrs. Neville, when Lady Gertrude was or was not present. In point of fact, this distinguished lady had too much character herself to be a genuine exclusive,

and only put it on when it suited the object of ambition immediately before her; for various were her objects, and she could fly from one to the other with a versatility and talent which showed her made for greater things, and only wanting the ingredients of sincerity and goodness, to render her a very powerful woman.

CHAPTER XLVIII.

MANAGEMENT.

Will you have me, Lady?

No, my Lord, unless I might have another for working days; your Grace is too costly to wear every day.

SHAKSPEARE.

THIS ability in everything that engaged her attention, public or private, plunged Mrs. Neville in perpetual business; and whether the management of an estate, or the management of an election, the getting off a house, or the getting off a daughter, was concerned, her industry, vigilance, and powers of acting were first-rate. As she had several daughters, the latter subject had begun to be a very serious concern to her; especially as she had been known to say, that management only was required to make any two persons marry as their friends might choose. From her mode of settting about this herself, we might have suspected her taking the hint from the stratagem which brought Benedict and Beatrice together, and of thinking with Hero and Ursula,

Of this matter

Is little Cupid's crafty arrow made,

That only wounds by hearsay.

But this supposition one thing forbad; for Mrs. Neville was personally much too occupied with the world itself to study it in Shakspeare.

Be this as it may, there was more foundation for what

the Lyttleton had blurted out upon the surmise of Miss Carysfort, than usually belonged to Miss Carysfort's surmises: for, although Tremaine had not offered himself to Miss Neville, she had been offered to him, and that without either party knowing anything about the matter. If any young woman of spirit and condition think this impossible, let her only examine the world a little farther than its outside, and she may find the thing not only perfectly feasible, but of every-day practice. Possibly she may discover, that, without knowing it, it may even have been her own case, and that while mamma has appeared occupied with her cards, and has left her seemingly to herself, she has been fairly brought to market, and bought or rejected as fortune decided.

What manoeuvring has not sometimes taken place (not by the poor honest girl, but) by the more wary mamma, that the two parties should sit by one another, dance with one another, and say pretty things of one another, so as eventually to think well of one another ; and yet all appear the most unpremeditated, natural thing in the world!

Just so was it for the best part of a whole spring, between Tremaine and the eldest Miss Neville, under the guidance of Miss Neville's mamma. It was at court that Tremaine was struck to the full extent of whatever impression was made; for certainly on acquaintance it never became deeper. Very handsome features, and a very graceful curtsy, caught his eye, and a compliment upon her manner and countenance by the Queen (herself an admirable judge) to the delighted mother, caught his ear. He dined that day at Neville House. In the evening there was a private concert, and Tremaine pronounced Miss Neville's finger to be, as it was, one of the best in London. The attentions of Tremaine never went farther-but they went quite far enough for Mrs. Neville, aided by the before-mentioned talent of management, to found upon them very strong hopes of a great establishment for her daughter.

This word establishment is of infinitely more force

in the English language, than perhaps its dictionaries are aware of. Its importance is of such a nature, and brought so home to the feelings of the parent as well as of the child, that it is inconceivable what a number of little moral duties, and points of delicacy, are swallowed up and lost in its contemplation. It is indeed nowhere to be found in the Gospel; but, like the great virtue there panegyrised, it seems to cover a multitude of

sins.

-

Strange to say, the chief difficulty was with the gentleman himself, who often talked of the folly, not to say immorality, of very unequal matches in point of age. To remedy this, Mrs. Neville, with no view to any particular alliance, keeping it indeed religiously out of sight, and as if quite accidentally, would gravely debate the matter with him, and prove theoretically, how much greater chance for happiness there was when a young girl gave herself to the guidance and protection of a man who knew the world, was beyond the heyday of passion, and who would therefore look for all his pleasures at home, than with a youth, perhaps the sport of every whim, likely to change in his feelings, to neglect, perhaps abandon his wife. On such occasions Mrs. Neville, after moralising very prettily, would support theory by example, and would bring out, carelessly, as if just recollecting it, and, perhaps, after having mentioned a match or two of unequal ages between others : "Now there are my daughters particularly Miss Neville; it is extraordinary, young as they are, how they see things as I do. I absolutely believe, nay, I am quite sure of it, that, had I nevér endeavoured to lead them on this subject, so important to a mother, their own innate taste would induce them to prefer men full twenty years older than themselves: they say they are so much more agreeable, so much less self-sufficient."-And then this skilful lady, after wellusing the tact of which she was mistress, would add, "Indeed, to own the truth to you, Mr. Tremaine, though it is a matter of too much delicacy even to glance at, if it were not for our very old acquaintance, I should not

wish, with my daughter's feelings, and after what I have actually heard her say of you (not to me, but to her companions, young people like herself), I should not, I say wish that is, it is just possible it might be not quite so prudent"- -and here she would stop, in so pretty a confusion, that her daughter herself, avowing her sentiments, could scarcely have carried it better.

Notwithstanding the very old acquaintance alluded to, Tremaine in fact knew very little of the lady making the allusion, more than that she was a very great lady, with a very fine countenance, and an immense fortune. She passed much of her time in the world, yet seemed to give all her attention to the direction of a large family, and all without the least stain upon her virtue. He, therefore, felt pleased and flattered by this sort of confidence, and, being himself open as day, had not, with all his disgusts, the least suspicion that Mrs. Neville was angling for him in favour of her daughter, as Hero, in the passage above adverted to, angled for Beatrice in favour of Benedict. He would therefore reply, as perhaps the lady wished; and according as he replied, she would inform him more particularly of what Miss Neville had said; how she had praised his fine air, his manners, his conversation, and had even sometimes added she would prefer dancing with him to the youngest man in the room.

Wiser, and even older men than Tremaine, have been caught with such latent, such well-managed flatteryand the spell was wound up when this Urganda added, as she sometimes would (if, after consulting the tact that has been mentioned, she found she was safe), “In short, my dear Sir, though I should grieve to see less of you in a house which you are pleased to say is agreeable to your taste, and much as I should shudder to compromise my daughter's delicacy, yet I am sure you will allow for a parent's anxiety, and not expose me when I say, that it perhaps would be best for the happiness of both parties, if you saw less of Miss Neville than you do;-of hers, for the reasons I have with such unaccountable boldness ventured to mention; of yours, in order to spare a man