"Oh no!... You see she is very busy looking for her friends. Good morning, Major!" said the same fair lady, turning to Major Allen, who stood close beside her, listening to all her inquiries and to the answers they received. "Are we to have a good ball on Tuesday?" "If all the world can be made to know that Miss Maddox will be there, all the world will assuredly be there to meet her," replied the gentleman. "Then I commission you to spread the tidings far and near. I wonder if there will be many strangers?" "Some of the Stephenson and Hubert party, I hear--that is, Colonel Hubert and young Frederick Stephenson--they are the only ones left. The bridal party set off from the Mall this morning at eleven o'clock. Lady Stephenson looked more beautiful than ever." "Lady Stephenson?.... Oh! Emily Hubert.... Yes, she is very handsome; and her brother is vastly like her." "Do you think so?... He is so thin and weather-beaten ... so very like an old soldier." "I don't like him the worse for that," replied the lady. "He looks as if he had seen service, and were the better for it. He is decidedly the handsomest man at Clifton." The Major smiled, and turned on his heel, which brought him exactly _vis-à-vis_ to Miss Elizabeth Peters. "Your party mean to honour the ball on Tuesday, I hope, Miss Peters?" "I believe so, Major Allen. It is seldom that we are not some of us there." "Shall you bring us the accession of any strangers?" inquired the Major. "Mrs. Barnaby and her niece will be with us, I think." "I flatter myself that altogether we shall muster strong. Good morning!" and with another sidelong glance at the widow, Major Allen walked out of the shop. Not a word of all this had been lost upon Mrs. Barnaby. She had thought from the very first that Elizabeth Peters must be selected as her particular friend, and now she was convinced that she would be invaluable in that capacity. It was quite impossible that any one could have answered better to questions than she had done. It was impossible, too, that anything could be more fascinating than the general appearance of Major Allen; and if, upon farther inquiry, it should prove that he was indeed, as he appeared to be, a man of fashion and fortune, the whole world could not offer her a lover she should so passionately desire to captivate! Such were the meditations of Mrs. Barnaby as she somewhat pensively sat at her drawing-room window, awaiting the return of Agnes to dinner on that day; and such were very frequently her meditations afterwards. END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.