s which his
surpassing acuteness, poor dear man! could alone overcome."

"No, indeed you wrong him," said Roland, with a laugh; "he scarcely
alluded to what he might have reasonably dwelt upon with pride, and what
demands all my gratitude. He was rather giving me, what I so much stand
in need of, a little lecture on my duties and devoirs as a possessor of
fortune; a code, I shame to confess, perfectly strange to me."

A very significant glance from Mrs. Kennyfeck towards the girls
revealed the full measure of her contempt for the hardihood of poor Mr.
Kennyfeck's daring; but quickly assuming a smile, she said, "And are we
to be permitted to hear what these excellent counsels were, or are these
what the Admiralty calls 'secret instructions'?"

"Not in the least. Mr. Kennyfeck sees plainly enough--it is but too
palpable--that I am as ignorant of this new world as he himself would
be, if dropped down suddenly in an Indian encampment, and that as the
thing I detest most in this life is any unnecessary notoriety, I want to
do as far as in me lies, like my neighbors. I own to you that the little
sketch with which he favored me is not too fascinating, but he assures
me that with time and patience and zeal I'll get over my difficulties,
and make a very tolerable country gentleman."

"But, my _dear_ Mr. Cashel," said Mrs. Kennyfeck, with a great emphasis
on the epithet, "why do you think of listening to Mr. Kennyfeck on such
a subject? Poor man, he takes all his notions of men and manners from
the Exchequer and Common Pleas."

"Papa's models are all in horse-hair wigs,--fat mummies in ermine!" said
Miss Kennyfeck.

"When Mr. Cashel knows Lord Charles," said Olivia.

"Or Mr. Linton--"

"Or the Dean," broke in Mrs. Kennyfeck; "for although a Churchman, his
information on every subject is boundless."

Miss Kennyfeck gave a sly look towards Cashel, which very probably
entered a dissent to her mamma's opinion.

"If I were you," resumed she, tenderly, "I know what I should do; coolly
rejecting all their counsels, I should fashion my life as it pleased
myself to live, well assured that in following my bent I should find
plenty of people only too happy to lend me their companionship. Just
reflect, for a moment, how very agreeable you can make your house,
without in the least compromising any taste or inclination of your own;
without, in fact, occupying your mind on the subject."

"But the world," remarked Mrs. Kennyfeck, "m