were fixed with absorbed interest on the stern and rigid countenance which she reflected had been, as it were, a thousand times darkened with the smoke of the grisly battle-field. But I must not forget that there are others in the room; and among them, standing at a little distance, is Lord De la Zouch, one of Mr. Aubrey's neighbors in Yorkshire. Apparently he is listening to a brother peer talking to him very earnestly about the expected division; but Lord De la Zouch's eye is fixed on you, lovely Kate--and how little can you imagine what is passing through his mind! It has just occurred to him that his sudden arrangement for young Delamere--his only son and heir, come up the day before from Oxford--to call for him about half-past ten, and take his place in Mrs. Aubrey's drawing-room, while Lord De la Zouch goes down to the House--may be attended with certain consequences! He is in truth speculating on the effect of your beauty bursting suddenly on his son--who has not seen you for nearly two years! all this gives him anxiety--but not painful anxiety--for, dear Kate, he knows that your forehead would wear the ancient coronet of the De la Zouches with grace and dignity. But Delamere is as yet too young--and if he gets the image of Catherine Aubrey into his head, it will, fears his father, instantly cast into the shade and displace all the stern visages of those old geometers, poets, orators, historians, philosophers, and statesmen, who ought, in Lord De la Zouch's and his son's tutor's judgment, to occupy exclusively the head of the aforesaid Delamere for some five years to come. That youngster--happy fellow!--frank, high-spirited, and enthusiastic--and handsome to boot--was heir to an ancient title and very great estates; all that his father had considered in looking out for an alliance was--youth, health, beauty, blood--here they all were;--and _fortune_ too--bah! what did it signify to his son--but at any rate 'twas not to be thought of for some years. "Suppose," said he, aloud, though in a musing manner, "one were to say--twenty-four"---- "_Twenty-four!_" echoed his companion, with amazement; "my dear De la Zouch, what the deuce do you mean? _Eighty_-four at the very lowest!" "Eh? what? oh--yes of course--I should say ninety--I mean--hem!--_they_ will muster about twenty-four only."