"Let us only
hope, for all our sakes, that his trial may not be a long one."

"Just to think of such a country!" exclaimed Marion; "there is
absolutely no one we could have to meet him."

"What's the name of that half-pay captain who called here t'other
morning?--the fellow who sat from luncheon till nigh dusk?" asked Jack.

"Captain Craufurd," replied Marion. "I hope nobody thinks of inviting
_him_; he is insufferably vulgar, and presuming besides."

"Was n't that the man, Marion, who told you that as my father and Lady
Augusta didn't live together the county gentry could n't be expected to
call on us?" asked Augustus, laughing.

"He did more: he entered into an explanation of the peculiar tenets
of the neighborhood, and told me if we had had the good luck to have
settled in the south or west of Ireland, they'd not have minded it, 'but
here,' he added, 'we are great sticklers for morality.'"

"And what reply did you make him, Marion?" asked Jack.

"I was so choked with passion that I could n't speak, or if I did say
anything I have forgotten it. At all events, he set me off laughing
immediately after, as he said,--'As for myself, I don't care a rush. I'm
a bachelor, and a bachelor can go anywhere.'"

She gave these words with such a close mimicry of his voice and manner,
that a general burst of laughter followed them.

"There's the very fellow we want," cried Jack. "That's the man to meet
our distinguished guest; he 'll not let him escape without a wholesome
hint or two."

"I 'd as soon see a gentleman exposed to the assault of a mastiff as
to the insulting coarseness of such a fellow as that," said Temple,
passionately.

"The mischief's done already; I heard the governor say, as he took
leave,--'Captain Craufurd, are you too strait-laced to dine out on a
Sunday? if not, will you honor us with your company at eight o'clock?'
And though he repeated the words 'eight o'clock' with a groan like
a protest, he muttered something about being happy, a phrase that
evidently cost him dearly, for he went shuffling down the avenue
afterwards with his hat over his eyes, and gesticulating with his hands
as if some new immorality had suddenly broke in upon his mind."

"You mean to say that he is coming to dinner here next Sunday?" asked
Temple, horrified.

"A little tact and good management are always sufficient to keep these
sort of men down," said Augustus.

"I hope we don't ask a man to dinner with the intention