"Some money might be desirable for all that," returned my aunt, in a tone that sounded full of irreverence to my unaccustomed ears. "The maddest step Colonel Hereford ever took was that of selling out. He thought to better himself, and he spent and lost the money, leaving your mamma with very little when he died." "I don't think mamma cared much for money, Selina." "I don't think she did, or she would not have taken matters so quietly. Do you remember, Anne, how she used to go on at me when I said I should marry Edwin Barley?" "Yes; mamma said how very wrong it would be of you to marry for money." "Quite true. She used to put her hands to her ears when I said I hated him. Now, what are those earnest eyes of your searching me for?" "_Do_ you hate him, Selina?" "I am not dying of love for him, you strange child." "One day a poor boy had a monkey before the window, and you said Mr. Edwin Barley was as ugly as that. Is he ugly?" Selina burst into a peal of ringing laughter. "Oh, he is very handsome, Anne; as handsome as the day: when you see him you shall tell me if you don't think so. I—— What is the matter? What are you looking at?" As I stood before my aunt, the door behind her seemed to be pushed gently open. I had thought some one was coming in; and said so. "The fire-light must have deceived you, Anne. That door is kept bolted; it leads to a passage communicating with my bedroom, but we do not use it." "I am certain that I saw it open," was my answer; and an unpleasant, fanciful thought came over me that it might be the man I saw in the avenue. "It is shut now; it shut again when I spoke." She rose, walked to the door, and tried to open it but it was fast. "You see, Anne. Don't you get fanciful, my dear; that is what your mamma was:" but I shook my head in answer. "Selina, did not Mr. Edwin Barley want me to go to Mrs. Hemson's instead of coming here?" "Who told you that?" "I heard Mr. Sterling talking of it with mamma." "Mr. Edwin Barley did, little woman. Did you hear why he wished it?" "No." "You should have heard that, it was so flattering to me. He thought I was too giddy to take charge of a young lady." "Did he?" "But Ursula would not accept the objection. It could not matter for a few weeks, she wrote to Mr. Edwin Barley, whether I were giddy or serious, and she could not think of consigning you, even temporarily, to Mrs. Hemson. Ah! my cousin Frances Carew and I took exactly opposite courses, Anne; I married for money, she for love. She met an attractive stranger at a watering-place, and married him." "And it was not right?"