"Indeed, I do not," replied a light-hearted Irish girl, "although she has put ours out of joint, as they call it. I only wish I'd her face or her fortune--either the one or the other--and I wouldn't be coming to Cheltenham after a husband--the gentlemen should trot over to Ireland." "How very odd that Mr and Mrs Rainscourt should not live together-- such good friends as they seem to be." "Oh, I know the reason of that; I was told it yesterday by Lady Wagtail. It was a runaway match, and they happened to be related within the canonical law; they are both Roman Catholics; and the Pope found it out, and ordered them to be separated, upon pain of excommunication." "Indeed!" "Yes, and Mr Rainscourt is waiting for a licence from the conclave--a dispensation they call it. They say it is expected from Rome next post, and then they can be united again immediately." "What beautiful horses Mr Rainscourt drives!" "Yes, that curricle, with the greys and the outriders, is quite superb. He always drives through the turnpike, I observe." "To be sure he does. Why, they say that he has 40,000 pounds a year." "And the whole is entailed upon his daughter." "Every farthing of it." "And who are those McElvina's?--What an odd name!" "Oh, I can tell you. Mrs Fitzpatrick says that he is of a very ancient Irish family--they are very rich. Mr McElvina made his fortune in India, by a speculation in opium, and his wife was the only daughter of a stock-broker in the city, who died worth a plum." "Number 4--a little warm, if you please, Mrs Bishop." "Yes, Miss." About a fortnight after his arrival, Rainscourt received the intelligence from his agent that everything was complete at the castle, and he determined to go over himself to examine it previous to communicating his interested act of gallantry to his wife. He proposed to McElvina, with whom he was on very friendly terms, to accompany him, and McElvina was decided in accepting the offer, in consequence of Mr Rainscourt's having informed him that a large property, contiguous to his own, which had almost from time immemorial been in possession of the McElvina family, was now for sale, the last possessor having gambled the whole of it away. "It may be worth your while," continued he, "if you are inclined to possess landed property, to look at it; as my agent informs me that it will be disposed of very cheap, and will give you good interest for your money."