paration between his ward and her lover
permanent; and, hitherto, he had successfully appealed to her pride and
her judgment. Fanny had felt Lord Cashel to be right, when he told her
that she was neglected, and that Frank was dissipated, and in debt. She
knew she should be unhappy as the wife of a poor nobleman, and she felt
that it would break her proud heart to be jilted herself. She had,
therefore, though unwillingly, still entirely agreed with her, guardian
as to the expediency of breaking off, the match; and, had Lord Cashel
been judicious, he might have confirmed her in this resolution; but his
last thunderbolt, which had been intended to crush Lord Ballindine, had
completely recoiled upon himself. Fanny now instantly understood the
allusion, and, raising her face, which was again resting on her hands,
looked at him with an indignant glance through her tears.

Lord Cashel, however, had left the room without observing the
indignation expressed in Fanny's eyes; but she was indignant; she
knew Frank well enough to be sure that he had come to Grey Abbey that
morning with no such base motives as those ascribed to him. He might
have heard of Harry's death, and come there to express his sorrow, and
offer that consolation which she felt she could accept from him sooner
than from any living creature:--or, he might have been ignorant of it
altogether; but that he should come there to press his suit because her
brother was dead--immediately after his death--was not only impossible;
but the person who could say it was possible, must be false and untrue
to her. Her uncle could not have believed it himself: he had basely
pretended to believe it, that he might widen the breach which he had
made.

Fanny was alone, in the drawing-room--for her cousin had left it as
soon as her father began to talk about Lord Ballindine, and she sat
there glowering through her tears for a long time. Had Lord Ballindine
been able to know all her thoughts at this moment, he would have felt
little doubt as to the ultimate success of his suit.

XIII. FATHER AND SON

Lord Cashel firmly believed, when he left the room, that he had shown
great tact in discovering Frank's mercenary schemes, and in laying them
open before Fanny; and that she had firmly and finally made up her mind
to have nothing more to do with him. He had not long been re-seated in
his customary chair in the book-room, before he began to feel a certain
degree of horror at the