"Do take compassion upon a weary man, and come over for a day or two. A whole blessed week this day have I been here with never a friend to speak to, or to make up a rubber in the evening. Featherston's a bad player, as you know, but I wish I had him here. I and my wife might take double dummy, for all the players we can get. Helen is engaged to be married to Captain Foliott, Lord Riverside's nephew; and nobody has any time to think of me and my whist-table. Bring the boys with you: Bill is as moped as I am. We are at the Belle Vue, you see. The girls wanted to stand out for the Foley Arms: it's bigger and grander: but I like a place that I have been used to. "From your old friend, "JOHN WHITNEY." The little Whitneys had caught scarlatina, all the fry of them. Recovered now, they had been sent to a cottage on the estate for change; and Sir John, his wife, William, Helen, and Anna went for a week to Malvern while the Hall was cleaned. This news, though, of Helen's engagement, took us by surprise. "How very sudden!" cried the mater. Tod was leaning back in his chair, laughing. "I _told_ her I knew there was something up between her and that Captain Foliott!" "Has she known him before?" asked the mater. "Known him, yes," cried Tod. "She saw a good deal of him at Cheltenham. As if she would engage herself to any one after only a week's acquaintanceship!" "As if Sir John would let her!" put in the Squire. "I can't answer for what Miss Helen would do." And Tod laughed again. When the children were taken ill, Helen and Anna, though they had had the malady, were packed off to Sir John's sister, Miss Whitney, who lived at Cheltenham, and they stayed there for some weeks. After that, they came to us at Dyke Manor for three days, and then went with their father and mother to Malvern. Helen was then full of Captain Foliott, and talked of him to us in private from morning till night. She had met him at Cheltenham, and he had paid her no end of attention. Now, as it appeared, he had followed her to Malvern, and asked for her of Sir John. "It seems to be a good match--a nephew of Lord Riverside's," observed the Squire. "Is he rich, I wonder?--and is the girl over head and ears in love with him?" "Rich he may be: but in love with him she certainly is not," cried Tod. "She was too ready to talk of him for that." The remark was amusing, coming from Tod. How had he learnt to be so worldly-wise? "Shall you go to Malvern, father?" "_Shall I go!_" repeated the Squire, astonished at the superfluous question. "Yes. And start as soon as ever I have finished my breakfast and changed my coat. You two may go also, as you are invited." We reached Malvern in the afternoon. Sir John and Lady Whitney were alone, in one of the pleasant sitting-rooms of the Belle Vue Hotel, and welcomed us with outstretched hands.