"He never proposed to me," I answered; "I never gave him an opportunity." "Why not?" said my cousin. "Because I liked some one else better," was my reply; and I think those few words settled the whole business. * * * * * I shall soon be five-and-twenty now, and on my birthday I am to be married. Aunt Deborah has got better ever since it has all been settled. Everybody seems pleased, and I am sure no one can be better pleased than I am. Only Lady Horsingham says, "Kate will _never_ settle." I think I know better. I think I shall make none the worse a wife because I can walk, and ride, and get up early, and stand all weathers, and love the simple, wholesome, natural pleasures of the country. John thinks so too, and that is all I need care about. I have such a charming trousseau, though I am ashamed to say I take very little pleasure in looking at it. But kind, thoughtful Cousin John has presented Brilliant with an entirely new set of clothing; and I think my horse seems almost more delighted with his finery than his mistress is with hers. My Cousin and I ride together every day. Dear me, how delightful it is to think that I shall always be as happy as I am now! THE END. NELSON'S CLASSICS A Library of Masterpieces, well printed, well bound in cloth, and unabridged. UNIFORM WITH THIS VOLUME. Tom Brown's Schooldays. THOMAS HUGHES. Since its publication more than half a century ago, this book has been the only school story which a boy recognizes as true to life. Henry Esmond. W. M. THACKERAY. If the merit of a historical novel be the exact reproduction of the life of another age, then _Esmond_ is the greatest of its class. No other book has caught more perfectly the flavour of the later Stuart times. Kenilworth. Sir WALTER SCOTT. Like all Sir Walter Scott's books, _Kenilworth_ is a great picture of a historical epoch, and it is also a very great and wonderful drama. Quentin Durward. Sir WALTER SCOTT. One of the most brilliant of Scott's romances. It presents a wonderfully powerful and moving picture of the times of Louis the Eleventh. Ivanhoe. Sir WALTER SCOTT. The most popular novel of Sir Walter Scott, and the first which every boy reads. It has given a living interest to an age which, in other hands, becomes a mere catalogue of conventional antiquities. Adam Bede. GEORGE ELIOT. The book which made Mrs. Carlyle feel "in charity with the whole human race" could be no ordinary one. _Adam Bede_ contains all George Eliot's broad and catholic knowledge of life, and the characters are all drawn by the hand of a master. The Mill on the Floss. GEORGE ELIOT. This is perhaps the best beloved of modern novels. It is the book in which George Eliot put most of her early life, and of all her heroines Maggie Tulliver is the one on whom she has expended most care and tenderness. Oliver Twist. CHARLES DICKENS.