reat surprise.

"A very old friend, my lord; the clergyman of his parish, and for many
years an intimate friend of his father. I have known Lord Ballindine
since he was a child."

"Lord Ballindine is lucky in having such a friend: few young men now,
I am sorry to say, care much for their father's friends. Is there
anything, Mr Armstrong, in which I can assist either you or his
lordship?"

"My lord," said the parson, "I need not tell you that before I took the
perhaps unwarrantable liberty of troubling you, I was made acquainted
with Lord Ballindine's engagement with your ward, and with the manner
in which that engagement was broken off."

"And your object is, Mr Armstrong--?"

"My object is to remove, if possible, the unfortunate misunderstanding
between your lordship and my friend."

"Misunderstanding, Mr Armstrong?--There was no misunderstanding between
us. I really think we perfectly understood each other. Lord Ballindine
was engaged to my ward; his engagement, however, being contingent on
his adoption of a certain line of conduct. This line of conduct his
lordship did not adopt; perhaps, he used a wise discretion; however, I
thought not. I thought the mode of life which he pursued--"

"But--"

"Pardon me a moment, Mr Armstrong, and I shall have said all which
appears to me to be necessary on the occasion; perhaps more than is
necessary; more probably than I should have allowed myself to say, had
not Lord Ballindine sent as his ambassador the clergyman of his parish
and the friend of his father," and Lord Cashel again bowed and rubbed
his hands. "I thought, Mr Armstrong, that your young friend appeared
wedded to a style of life quite incompatible with his income--with
his own income as a single man, and the income which he would have
possessed had he married my ward. I thought that their marriage would
only lead to poverty and distress, and I felt that I was only doing my
duty to my ward in expressing this opinion to her. I found that she
was herself of the same opinion; that she feared a union with Lord
Ballindine would not ensure happiness either to him or to herself. His
habits were too evidently those of extravagance, and hers had not been
such as to render a life of privation anything but a life of misery."

"I had thought--"

"One moment more, Mr Armstrong, and I shall have done. After
mature consideration, Miss Wyndham commissioned me to express her
sentiments,--and I must say they fully coincided