hat,
thus leaving chance to decide upon whom the happy lot was to fall.

'Mark ye, Upton,' cried Lord Dudley, as he prepared to draw forth his
prize--'mark ye, I didn't say I 'd marry her.'

'No, no,' resounded from different parts of the room; 'we understand you
perfectly.'

'My bet,' continued he, 'is this: I have booked it.' With these words
he opened a small memorandum-book and read forth the following
paragraph:--'Three hundred with Upton that I don't ask and be accepted
by any girl in Paul's drawing-room this evening, after tea; the choice
to be decided by lottery. Isn't that it?'

'Yes, yes, quite right, perfectly correct,' said several persons round
the table. 'Come, my lord, here is the hat.'

'Shake them up well, Upton.'

'So here goes,' said Herbert, as affectedly tucking up the sleeve of
his coat, he inserted two fingers and drew forth a small piece of paper
carefully folded in two. 'I say, gentlemen, this is your affair; it
doesn't concern me.' With these words he threw it carelessly on the
table, and resuming his seat, leisurely filled his glass, and sipped his
wine.

'Come, read it, Blake; read it up! Who is she?'

'Gently, lads, gently; patience for one moment. How are we to know if
the wager be lost or won? Is the lady herself to declare it?'

'Why, if you like it; it is perfectly the same to me.'

'Well, then,' rejoined Blake, 'it is--Miss Bellew!'

No sooner was the name read aloud, than, instead of the roar of laughter
which it was expected would follow the announcement, a kind of awkward
and constrained silence settled on the party. Mr. Rooney himself, who
felt shocked beyond measure at this result, had been so long habituated
to regard himself as nothing at the head of his own table, accepting,
not dictating, its laws, that, much as he may have wished to do so, did
not dare to interfere to stay any further proceedings. But many of those
around the table who knew Sir Simon Bellew, and felt how unsuitable
and inadmissible such a jest as this would be, if practised upon _his_
daughter, whispered among themselves a hope thai the wager would be
abandoned, and never thought of more by either party.

'Yes, yes,' said Upton, who was an officer in a dragoon regiment, and
although of a high family and well connected, was yet very limited in
his means. 'Yes, yes, I quite agree. This foolery might be very good fun
with some young ladies we know, but with Miss Bellew the circumstances
are quite