well alone
is a golden rule worth all in Pythagoras. The ladies of Bubastis, my
dear,--a place in Egypt where the cat was worshipped,--always kept
rigidly aloof from the gentlemen in Athribis, who adored the shrew-mice.
Cats are domestic animals, your shrew-mice are sad gadabouts: you can't
find a better model, any Kitty, than the ladies of Bubastis!"

"How Trevanion is altered!" said Roland, musingly,--"he who was so
lively and ardent!"

"He ran too fast up-hill at first, and has been out of breath ever
since," said my father.

"And Lady Ellinor," said Roland, hesitatingly, "shall you see her
to-morrow?"

"Yes!" said my father, calmly.

As Captain Roland spoke, something in the tone of his question seemed to
flash a conviction on my mother's heart, the woman there was quick; she
drew back, turning pale even in the moonlight, and fixed her eyes on
my father, while I felt her hand, which had clasped mine, tremble
convulsively.

I understood her. Yes, this Lady Ellinor was the early rival whose name
till then she had not known. She fixed her eyes on my father; and at his
tranquil tone and quiet look she breathed more freely, and, sliding
her hand from mine, rested it fondly on his shoulder. A few moments
afterwards, I and Captain Roland found ourselves standing alone by the
window.

"You are young, nephew," said the Captain, "and you have the name of a
fallen family to raise. Your father does well not to reject for you
that opening into the great world which Trevanion offers. As for me, my
business in London seems over: I cannot find what I came to seek. I have
sent for my daughter; when she arrives I shall return to my old tower,
and the man and the ruin will crumble away together."

"Tush, uncle! I must work hard and get money; and then we will repair
the old tower and buy back the old estate. My father shall sell the red
brick house; we will fit him up a library in the keep; and we will all
live united, in peace, and in state, as grand as our ancestors before
us."

While I thus spoke, my uncle's eyes were fixed upon a corner of
the street, where a figure, half in shade, half in moonlight, stood
motionless. "Ah!" said I, following his eye, "I have observed that man
two or three times pass up and down the street on the other side of the
way and turn his head towards our window. Our guests were with us then,
and my father in full discourse, or I should have--"

Before I could finish the sentence my uncle, s