"Tut, tut, tut! Fin, my dear," said Lady Rea, drawing her child to her, till Fin lay with her head resting against her, but with her face averted. "Now, come, tell me all about it. I don't like you to have secrets from me." "Well, ma, he met me, and begged for five minutes' interview." "Well, my dear?" "Well, ma, I told him it was of no use, for I knew what he was going to say." "Oh, Fin, my dear child, I'm afraid they neglected your etiquette very much at school." "No, they didn't, ma," said Fin, with her eyes twinkling--"they were always sowing me with it; but I was stony ground, as Aunt Matty would say, and it never took root. Oh, ma, if you had only seen what a donkey he looked!--and he smelt all over the room, just like one of Rimmel's young men. Then," continued Fin, speaking fast and excitedly, "he went on talking stuff--said he'd lay his title and fortune at my feet; that he'd give the world to win my heart, and I told him I hadn't got one; said he should wait patiently, and kept on talk, talk, talk--all stuff that he had evidently been learning up for the occasion; and I'd have given anything to have been able to pull his ears and rumple his hair, only he might have thought it rude." "Oh yes, my dear," said mamma, innocently. "And at last I said I didn't think I should ever accept any one, for I hated men; and then he sighed, and looked at me side-wise, and wanted to take my hand; and I ran out of the room, and that's all." "But, Fin, my dear--" "Oh, I know, ma, it was horribly rude; but I hate him. Pf! I can smell him now." Lady Rea sighed. "And now, I suppose," said Fin, "we are to be pestered--poor Tiny and your humble servant; they'll follow us to church, get sittings where they can watch us, and carry on a regular siege. I wish them joy of it!" Lady Rea only sighed, and stroked the glossy head, till Fin suddenly jumped up, and ran out of the room; but only to come back at the end of a minute, and stand nodding her head. "Well, my dear, what is it?" said Lady Rea. "You'll have to put your foot down, mamma," said Fin, sharply. Lady Rea glanced at her little member, which, in its delicate kid boot, looked too gentle to crush a fly; and she sighed. "A nice state of affairs!" said Fin. "There's Tiny, up in her bedroom crying herself into a decline, and Aunt Matty in the study with papa conspiring against our happiness, because it's for our good. Now, mark my words, mamma--there'll be a regular plot laid to marry Tiny to that odious Bluebeard of a Captain, and if you don't stop it I shall." Lady Rea sat, with wrinkled brow, looking puzzled at the little decisive figure before her; and then, as Fin went out with a whisk of all her light skirts, she sat for a few moments thinking, and then went up to her elder daughter's room. Volume 3, Chapter VII. FRANK A VISITOR.