Finding that the Earl was slow in uttering conjectures, Lord Spoonbill was compelled to give broader hints; and for that purpose he rose from his seat and walked to the fire-place, and put his elbow on the chimney-piece, and his hand upon his forehead, and sighed--oh, how he did sigh! He would have been a fine subject for Chantrey; but neither Chantrey nor any one else could have immortalized that magnificent sigh. At this movement the Earl started, and exclaimed: "Are you in love, Spoonbill?" "Suppose I am, sir;" replied the son of the patrician, "and what then?" "What then!" echoed Lord Smatterton; "that very much depends on the person who has engaged your affections. If it be a suitable connexion, I shall throw no impediment in your way." "But, perhaps, what may appear a suitable connexion to me may not appear in the same light to you." "Of course you will not think of marrying a woman of no understanding." "Certainly not," replied Lord Spoonbill cheerfully and confidently; "I could not bear to live with a wife who was not a person of intellect." Some of our readers might not have expected this remark from Lord Smatterton, or this reply from Lord Spoonbill; but let those readers look out among their acquaintance for a great blockhead, and let them talk to him about intellect, and they will not wonder that Lord Spoonbill had a fancy for an intellectual wife. There is, now a-days, a great demand for intellect, and a demand will always create a supply of some sort or other. "And I think," continued the Earl of Smatterton, "that I know your opinions on that subject too well to suppose that you would ever degrade yourself so far as to marry a person of low birth." Lord Spoonbill bit his lips; and said, "I would never marry a woman of vulgar manners, whatever might be her birth." "You are right," said the Earl; "but why can you not tell me at once, without all this circumlocution, who is the lady that is destined to the honor of becoming Lady Spoonbill?" Here the young man hesitated and demurred, and endeavoured to say something that should amount to nothing. But the Earl was not content to be put off evasively, and pressed so hard, that at length the secret was extorted. Then was the Lord of Smatterton exceedingly astonished and grieved, and he groaned and shook his head most solemnly, and in a tone of great anguish of mind, said; "Oh, Spoonbill! Spoonbill! That you should ever have come to this! And have you made the young woman an offer of your hand?" "I have," replied the son, who thought that the readiest way of bringing the matter to a conclusion would be to avow it at once.