h guile and stratagem, she trod on, beneath the eyes of
the simple and spotless Dead.

Vernon, thus left alone, mused a few moments on what had passed between
himself and the heiress; and then, slowly retracing his steps, his eye
roved along the stately series of his line. "Faith!" he muttered, "if
my boyhood had been passed in this old gallery, his Royal Highness would
have lost a good fellow and hard drinker, and his Majesty would have had
perhaps a more distinguished soldier,--certainly a worthier subject. If
I marry this lady, and we are blessed with a son, he shall walk through
this gallery once a day before he is flogged into Latin!"

Lucretia's interview with her uncle was a masterpiece of art. What pity
that such craft and subtlety were wasted in our little day, and on such
petty objects; under the Medici, that spirit had gone far to the shaping
of history. Sure, from her uncle's openness, that he would plunge at
once into the subject for which she deemed she was summoned, she evinced
no repugnance when, tenderly kissing her, he asked if Charles Vernon had
a chance of winning favour in her eyes. She knew that she was safe in
saying "No;" that her uncle would never force her inclinations,--safe
so far as Vernon was concerned; but she desired more: she desired
thoroughly to quench all suspicion that her heart was pre-occupied;
entirely to remove from Sir Miles's thoughts the image of Mainwaring;
and a denial of one suitor might quicken the baronet's eyes to the
concealment of the other. Nor was this all; if Sir Miles was seriously
bent upon seeing her settled in marriage before his death, the dismissal
of Vernon might only expose her to the importunity of new candidates
more difficult to deal with. Vernon himself she could use as the shield
against the arrows of a host. Therefore, when Sir Miles repeated his
question, she answered, with much gentleness and seeming modest sense,
that Mr. Vernon had much that must prepossess in his favour; that in
addition to his own advantages he had one, the highest in her eyes,--her
uncle's sanction and approval. But--and she hesitated with becoming and
natural diffidence--were not his habits unfixed and roving? So it was
said; she knew not herself,--she would trust her happiness to her uncle.
But if so, and if Mr. Vernon were really disposed to change, would it
not be prudent to try him,--try him where there was temptation, not in
the repose of Laughton, but amidst his own haunt