"Yes, she has, and you need not all look so incredulous. It is a good offer too, plenty of substance about it. She will abound in such wealth that she'll be the envy of all the girls in London, and of you four in particular. She will have her town and country mansions, crowds of servants, dresses at will--everything, in short, that money can purchase." For, in her maternal anxiety for the acceptance of the offer, her ladyship thought she could not make too much of its advantages. "Why, for all that, Grace would marry a chimney-sweep," laughed the plain-speaking Lady Frances. "Grace has had it in her head to turn serious," added Harriet; "she may put that off now. I think Aladdin's lamp has been at work." "Of course there are some disadvantages attending the proposed match," said Lady Acorn, with deprecation; "no marriage is without them, I can tell you that. Grace will have every real and substantial good; but the gentleman, in birth and position, is--rather obscure. But he is not a chimney-sweep: it's not so bad as that." "Good Heavens, mamma!" interrupted Lady Grace. "'So bad as that'?" "Pray do not make any further mystery, mamma," said Mary. "Who is it that has fallen in love with Grace?" "Mr. Grubb." "Mr.----Grubb!" was echoed by the young ladies in every variety of astonishment, and Grace thought that of all the men in the world she should have guessed him last; but she did not say so. She was of a cautious nature, and rarely spoke on impulse. The silence of surprise was broken by a ringing laugh from Adela, one laugh following upon another. It seemed as though she could not cease. When had they seen Adela so merry? "I cannot help it," she said apologetically, "but it did strike me as sounding so absurd. 'Lady Grace Grubb!' Forgive me, Gracie." "It will not bear so aristocratic a sound as Lady Grace Chenevix," retorted the mother, tartly, "but remember the old saying, 'What's in a name?' It is you who are absurd, Adela." CHAPTER V. LADY ADELA. "I have opened the matter to Grace, and there'll be no trouble with her," began Lady Acorn to her husband the next morning, halting to say it as she was going into her dressing-room. "No girl knows better than she on which side her bread is buttered!" "To Grace!" cried the earl, who was only half awake, and spoke from the bedclothes. "Do you mean about Grubb?" "Now what else should I mean?" "But it is not Grace he wants. It's Adela." "Adela!" echoed Lady Acorn, aghast. "I don't think he'd have Grace at a gift--or any of them but Adela. And so you told _her_, making her dream of wedding-rings and orange-blossoms! Poor Gracie, what a sell!" "Adela will never have him," broke forth the countess, in high vexation, at herself, her husband, Mr. Grubb, and the world in general. "Never!" "Oh, nonsense, she must be talked into it. With five girls, it's something to get off one of them."