you, my dear.--Take my arm, Richard.
Are you afraid of your aunt? I want to get used to you. Won't it be
pleasant, our being all in town together in the season? How fresh the
Opera will be to you! Austin, I hear, takes stalls. You can come to the
Forey's box when you like. We are staying with the Foreys close by
here. I think it's a little too far out, you know; but they like the
neighbourhood. This is what I have always said: Give him more liberty!
Austin has seen it at last. How do you think Clare looking?"

The question had to be repeated. Richard surveyed his cousin hastily,
and praised her looks.

"Pale!" Mrs. Doria sighed.

"Rather pale, aunt."

"Grown very much--don't you think, Richard?"

"Very tall girl indeed, aunt."

"If she had but a little more colour, my dear Richard! I'm sure I give
her all the iron she can swallow, but that pallor still continues.
I think she does not prosper away from her old companion. She was
accustomed to look up to you, Richard"--

"Did you get Ralph's letter, aunt?" Richard interrupted her.

"Absurd!" Mrs. Doria pressed his arm. "The nonsense of a boy! Why did
you undertake to forward such stuff?"

"I'm certain he loves her," said Richard, in a serious way.

The maternal eyes narrowed on him. "Life, my dear Richard, is a game
of cross-purposes," she observed, dropping her fluency, and was rather
angered to hear him laugh. He excused himself by saying that she spoke
so like his father.

"You breakfast with us," she freshened off again. "The Foreys wish
to see you; the girls are dying to know you. Do you know, you have
a reputation on account of that"--she crushed an intruding
adjective--"System you were brought up on. You mustn't mind it. For
my part, I think you look a credit to it. Don't be bashful with young
women, mind! As much as you please with the old ones. You know how to
behave among men. There you have your Drawing-room Guide! I'm sure I
shall be proud of you. Am I not?"

Mrs. Doria addressed his eyes coaxingly.

A benevolent idea struck Richard, that he might employ the minutes to
spare, in pleading the case of poor Ralph; and, as he was drawn along,
he pulled out his watch to note the precise number of minutes he could
dedicate to this charitable office.

"Pardon me," said Mrs. Doria. "You want manners, my dear boy. I think
it never happened to me before that a man consulted his watch in my
presence."

Richard mildly replied that he had an engagement