pace his chamber for an hour together, running over, in his mind, the names of all the women he knew who would be likely to lay snares for Titmouse, in order to secure him for a daughter. Then there was the Lady Cecilia--but she, he knew, would not run counter to his wishes, and he had, therefore, no difficulty to apprehend on _that_ score. She had ever been calmly submissive to his will; had the same lofty sense of family dignity that he enjoyed; and had often concurred in his deep regrets on account of the separation of the family interests. She was still unmarried--and yet, on her father's decease, would be a peeress in her own right, and possessed of the family estates. The fastidiousness which alone, thought the earl, had kept her hitherto single, would not, he felt persuaded, be allowed by her to interfere, for the purpose of preventing so excellent a family arrangement as would be effected by her union with Titmouse. Once married--and being secured suitable settlements from Titmouse--if there should prove to be any incompatibility of temper or discrepancy of disposition, come the worst to the worst, there was the shelter of a separation and separate maintenance to look to; a thing which was becoming of daily occurrence--which implied no real reproach to either party--and left them always at liberty to return to each other's society--when so disposed. And as for the dress and manners of Titmouse, granting them to be a little extravagant, would not, in all probability, a word from her suffice to dispel his fantastic vulgarity--to elevate him into a gentleman? Thus thought her fond and enlightened parent, and thus--in point of fact--thought also she; from which it is evident, that Titmouse, once brought to the point--made sensible where his duty and his privilege converged--it would be a straightforward plain-sailing business. To bring about so desirable a state of things as this--to give the young people an opportunity of thoroughly knowing and endearing themselves to each other, were among the objects which the earl had proposed to himself, in accepting the invitation to Yatton. Time was wearing on, however, and yet no decisive step had been taken. Lady Cecilia's icy coldness--her petrifying indifference of manner, her phlegmatic temperament and lofty pride, were qualities, all of which were calculated rather to check than encourage the advances of a suitor, especially of such an one as Titmouse; but, though the earl did not know it, there were others whose ardor and impatience to possess themselves of such superior loveliness, could not be similarly restrained or discouraged. Will not the reader find it difficult to believe, that Mr. Venom Tuft, having been long on the look-out for--Heaven save the mark!--an aristocratic wife, had conceived it not impossible to engage the affections of Lady Cecilia--to fascinate her by the display of his brilliant acquirements; and that the comparative seclusion of Yatton