d against Major Elliott and his attractions,
whatever they might be, Frances Seymour made her debut; and, however
brilliant had been her anticipations of success, she had the
satisfaction of finding them fully realised. She was the belle of the
season--admired, courted, and envied; and by the end of it, she had
refused at least half-a-dozen proposals. As she was perfectly
independent, she resolved to enjoy a longer lease of her liberty,
before she put it in the power of any man to control her inclinations.

Shortly after the termination of the season, some family affairs
called Mr and Mrs Wentworth to St Petersburg; and as it was not
convenient that Frances should accompany them, they arranged that she
should spend the interval in visiting some families of their own
connection residing in the country, who promised to take due charge of
her.

The first of these, by name Dunbar, were worthy people enough, but,
unfortunately for Frances, desperately dull; and the few neighbours
they had happened to be as dull as themselves. There were neither
balls nor routs to keep up the spirits of the London belle; and a
tiresome drive of six or eight miles to an equally tiresome
dinner-party, was but a poor substitute for the gaieties which the
late season had given her a taste for.

Frances was not without resources. She was a fine musician, and played
and sang admirably; but she liked to be told that she did so. At
Dunbar House, nobody cared for music, nobody listened to her, and her
most _recherchees toilettes_ delighted nobody but her maid. She was
_aux abois_, as the French say, and had made some progress in the
concoction of a scheme to get away, when an improvement took place in
her position, from the arrival of young Vincent Dunbar, the only son
of the family. He was a lieutenant in a regiment of infantry that had
lately returned from the colonies, and had come, as in duty bound, to
waste ten days or a fortnight of his three months' leave in the dull
home of his ancestors. As he was an extremely handsome,
fashionable-looking youth, Frances, when she went down to dinner, felt
quite revived by the sight of him. Here was something to dress for,
and something to sing to; and although the young lieutenant's
conversation was not a whit above the usual standard of his class, it
appeared lively and witty when compared with that of his parents. His
small colonial experiences were more interesting than Mrs Dunbar's
domestic ones; and