"Pish!" said the Squire, but his hearty smile came to his lips in spite of himself: "You always get your own way, and I suppose Frank must ride over and see this pet of my--" "_Brother's_," quoth the Parson, concluding the sentence in a tone which gave to the sweet word so sweet a sound that the Squire would not correct the Parson, as he had been about to correct himself. Mr. Dale moved on; but as he passed Captain Barnabas, the benignant character of his countenance changed sadly. "The cruelest trump, Captain Higginbotham!" said he sternly, and stalked by--majestic. The night was so fine that the Parson and his wife, as they walked home, made a little _detour_ through the shrubbery. MRS. DALE.--"I think I have done a good piece of work to-night." PARSON, rousing himself from a reverie.--"Have you, Carry?--it will be a very pretty handkerchief." MRS. DALE.--"Handkerchief--nonsense, dear. Don't you think it would be a very happy thing for both, if Jemima and Signor Riccabocca could be brought together?" PARSON.--"Brought together!" MRS. DALE.--"You do snap one up so, my dear--I mean if I could make a match of it." PARSON.--"I think Riccabocca is a match already, not only for Jemima, but yourself into the bargain." MRS. DALE, smiling loftily.--"Well, we shall see. Was not Jemima's fortune about £4000?" PARSON dreamily, for he is relapsing fast into his interrupted reverie: "Ay--ay--I daresay." MRS. DALE.--"And she must have saved! I dare say it is nearly £6000 by this time; eh! Charles dear, you really are so--good gracious, what's that!" As Mrs. Dale made this exclamation they had just emerged from the shrubbery, into the village green. PARSON.--"What's what?" MRS. DALE, pinching her husband's arm very nippingly.--"That thing--there--there." PARSON.--"Only the new stocks, Carry; I don't wonder they frighten you, for you are a very sensible woman. I only wish they would frighten the Squire." CHAPTER XIII. _Supposed to be a Letter from Mrs. Hazeldean to ---- Riccabocca, Esq., The Casino; but edited, and indeed composed, by Miss Jemima Hazeldean._ "DEAR SIR--To a feeling heart it must always be painful to give pain to another, and (though I am sure unconsciously) you have given the _greatest_ pain to poor Mr. Hazeldean and myself, indeed to _all_ our little circle, in so cruelly refusing our attempts to become better acquainted with a gentleman we so highly ESTEEM. Do, pray, dear sir, make us the _amende honorable_, and give us the _pleasure_ of your company for a few days at the Hall! May we expect you Saturday next?--our dinner-hour is six o'clock. "With the best compliments of Mr. and Miss Jemima Hazeldean. "Believe me, my dear sir, yours truly, "H.H. "_Hazeldean Hall._"