stings."

"I beg your ladyship ten thousand pardons," answered the general. "I
had no idea of whom you were speaking. There is nothing terrible about
him; he is a most gentlemanly refined person, has evidently mixed in
good society all his life. He tells me that I knew him in our younger
days, and he is certainly an old acquaintance of Sir Ralph's."

Julia was perfectly ready to believe the general's account, and assisted
him at length in sufficiently calming her mother's fears to induce her
to retire to her chamber.

At last the hungry guests, whose dinner had been so long postponed,
assembled in the dining-room, where they were joined by the master of
the house and Mr Hastings. Sir Ralph still looked nervous, and instead
of exhibiting his usual self-possession, his manner was subdued, and his
mind evidently distracted, as he appeared frequently not to have heard
the remarks made to him. He treated Mr Hastings with the most marked
attention, while he seemed almost at times to forget the presence of the
marquis and his other titled guests. Julia excused herself from coming
downstairs on the plea of having to attend to her mother.

The general tried to make amends for Sir Ralph's want of attention to
his guests, and talked away for the whole party.

"I hope, Mr Hastings," said the general, drawing him aside after
dinner, "you have convinced my friend Sir Ralph that your gallant son is
a fit match for his fair daughter, Miss Julia. I should like to be able
to give the young lady a hint to calm her anxiety on the subject."

"I think, my dear general, that her father will no longer object to the
match; but I have agreed to retain my incognito till the arrival of my
son, whose ship was announced as having reached Spithead yesterday
evening, and as I obtained leave for him at the Admiralty, he will come
on here at once."

The general, who was as much at home at Texford as at his own house,
found means to communicate with Julia, and to give her the satisfactory
intelligence.

He was too good a soldier to neglect placing sentinels on the watch
during the night, which, however, passed without any appearance of the
enemy in the neighbourhood of the Hall.

Next morning the marquis and Lord Frederick, who had not been
unobservant of what was taking place, though somewhat puzzled, were
prepared for the hint which the general conveyed to them, that the heart
and hand of Miss Julia Castleton were engaged. Regretting