CHAPTER IV.

LADY CAMDEN felt deeply injured when she learned that her nephew had established himself at Marston Abbas for the winter. She remarked that his newly awakened zeal for hunting was a flimsy pretext which could deceive no one, and that he would not have risked his chances of obtaining a seat in Parliament unless he had preferred the possibility of retrieving his scattered fortunes by marrying an heiress. have been more seriously aggrieved, but he said less about it, and when they met in the hunting field he nodded to his cousin in a friendly way and hoped that he was well mounted.

Sir Harry may

It was a bright day, the first good meet

of the season, and of course Thomasina and Sir Richard were there. She looked radiant and happy, and having previously told her grandfather that she liked Mr. Noel very much, and hoped to see him often, she introduced him without a shade of embarrassment, and had the satisfaction of hearing Sir Richard couple his apologies for not having left his card upon him at the 'George,' with an invitation to join their family party at dinner any day that suited him. Noel accepted the invitation with alacrity for the following evening, and he rode with them throughout the day.

'I don't know why a fellow like that should put up at the "George," Sir Richard remarked when they parted; 'a London club would be more in his line.'

'He has come down for hunting,' said Thomasina composedly.

'He takes his hunting in a very ladylike

It is very well for

way. It is

you and for an old fellow like me to look out for the gates, but at his age I liked to go straight across country.'

'He was not very well mounted,' said Thomasina, sensitive to the criticism; and besides, as he is almost a stranger here, he was glad to ride with us.'

'I thought you told me that he was a cousin of Camden's?'

'So he is; but I don't think that his politics quite suit Sir Harry,' said Thomasina incautiously.

Then his politics won't suit me, Thomasina. I cannot put up with any newfangled notions, and, now I come to think about it, it was Noel who told you to read Adam Smith.'

'Yes, grandfather; there is nothing newfangled in that, since you said that you read his books when you were a young man,

I am sure that you will not find out that Mr. Noel is a Radical, if he is a Radical, unless you begin the subject of politics, and you know that I do not like you to talk of the corn-laws, because I have heard so often all you have to say about them. have a nice, peaceable evening; and I must ask father and Polly to come, for I suppose that is what you mean by a family party?'

We will

Yes, you had better ask Anthony, and then I shall not be bothered to make talk after dinner,' said Sir Richard, in whose eyes Anthony's wife was still a cipher.

Mrs. Gibbs, the housekeeper, thought that Miss Bertram was needlessly particular about the dinner, considering that there was only to be one gentleman guest besides the family, and Mary was equally at a loss to understand why Thomasina charged her to wear the most becoming of the evening

dresses which used to appear at dinner parties in regular succession. But Mary, as well as Mrs. Gibbs, acknowledged Thomasina's supremacy, and her wishes were gratified accordingly. Edward Noel understood the situation too well to distinguish Thomasina by any particular attention, and she was quiet and reserved; but the evening was a pleasant one, and, when he rose to take leave, the cordiality with which Sir Richard regretted that he had not asked him to stay the night proved that he had made no unfavourable impression.

'He is an intelligent young fellow,' said Sir Richard when his guest had departed, ' though he cannot ride so well as our friend Sir Harry. People do say that he is a Radical and free-thinker, but I saw nothing of it.'

'Hath not a Jew eyes?' asked Thomasina. The quotation was lost upon Sir Richard,