"No doubt you would," said her ladyship drily. "But if young ladies would only be guided by the choice of their best friends, rather than by their own headstrong wills, we should hear far less about unhappy marriages, and the evils they bring." To this Eleanor made no answer. "Most people would agree with me, my dear, that you ought to consider yourself a very lucky girl to have drawn such a prize as Captain Dayrell. A man still young--he can't be more than three or four and thirty--handsome, accomplished, of an excellent family--he is first cousin to Lord Coniston--tolerably rich, and of such an easy, good-natured disposition, that any woman of tact would soon learn to twine him round her finger: what more could any reasonable being wish for?" "Does affection count for nothing in your estimate of marriage, Lady Dudgeon?" "Oh, my dear, you may depend upon it that if there is no prior attachment you would soon learn to like him. Captain Dayrell is generally looked upon as a most fascinating man in society." "Captain Dayrell may be all that you say he is," replied Eleanor, "but for all that, he can never be anything more to me than he is at the present moment." "So be it. The likes and dislikes of young ladies are among the unaccountable things of this world. But I cannot help saying that your point-blank refusal even to see Captain Dayrell is a great disappointment to me." "Do not say that, dear Lady Dudgeon!" cried Eleanor, and with that she took the elder lady's hand in hers, pressed it to her lips, and then nestled down on the little footstool by her knees. "Believe me, I am not ungrateful, not insensible to the kindness which prompted you to take an obscure country girl by the hand, and treat her more as a daughter of your own than anything else. But I cannot tell you how sorry I am to find that you should so far have misunderstood me as to think that you were doing me a kindness in endeavouring to secure for me the attention of Captain Dayrell." "It is certainly a great disappointment to me," said Lady Dudgeon, with a sigh. "I had really set my heart on you and Captain Dayrell making a match of it." "But cannot you understand that I have no wish to get married, nor any intention of changing my name for a long time to come--if ever?" "Well, well, child; I only hope that what you say is right, and that there is indeed no prior attachment. But be careful that you do not fall into the hands of some swindling adventurer--of some romantic rogue, with a handsome face and a wheedling tongue, who, while persuading you that he loves you for yourself alone, cares, in reality, for nothing but the money you will bring him. The world abounds with such men. Be warned, or you may have to repent when repentance will be of no avail." "Ah, Lady Dudgeon if I were not an heiress, what a happy girl I should be!" "Child, you talk like a lunatic."