She has not been very well; the physicians forbid late hours and London; but even in the country we are very gay.

My uncle lives near us, and though a widower, has his house full when down at Merton Park; and Papa, too, is rich, very hospitable and popular, and will, I hope, be a bishop one of these days--not at all like a mere country parson; and so, somehow or other, I have learned to be ambitious,--we are an ambitious family on Papa's side.

But, alas! I have not your cards to play.

Young, beautiful, and an heiress! Ah, what prospects! You should make your mamma take you to town." "To town! she would be wretched at the very idea.

Oh, you don't know us." "I can't help fancying, Miss Evelyn," said Caroline, archly, "that you are not so blind to Lord Vargrave's perfections and so indifferent to London, only from the pretty innocent way of thinking, that so prettily and innocently you express.