advice, Elizabeth; make him follow it," said he dryly.

"We will give him no rest when we have him at Brentwood," added Miss
Burleigh. "But though he is so cool about it, I believe he is dreadfully
in earnest. Are you not, Cecil?"

"I will not be beaten by my own neglect," was his rejoinder, with a
glance at Bessie, blushing beautifully.

They did not relapse into constraint any more that day. There was no
addition to the company at dinner, and the evening being genially warm,
they enjoyed it in the garden. Mr. Cecil Burleigh and Miss Fairfax even
strolled as far as the ruins in the park, and on the way he enlightened
her respecting some of his opinions, tastes, and prejudices. She heard
him attentively, and found him very instructive. His clever conversation
was a compliment to which, as a bright girl, she was not insensible. His
sister had detailed to him her behavior on her introduction to Lady
Angleby, and had deplored her lively sense of the ridiculous. Miss
Burleigh had the art of taming that her brother credited her with, and
Elizabeth was already at ease and happy with her--free to be herself, as
she felt, and not always on guard and measuring her words; and the more
of her character that she revealed, the better Miss Burleigh liked her.
Her gayety of temper was very attractive when it was kept within due
bounds, and she had a most sweet docility of tractableness when
approached with caution. At the close of the evening she retired to her
white parlor with a rather exalted feeling of responsibility, having
promised, at Mr. Cecil Burleigh's instigation, to study certain essays
of Lord Bacon on government and seditions in states for the informing of
her mind. She took the volume down from Dorothy Fairfax's bookshelf, and
laid it on her table for a reminder. Miss Burleigh saw it there in the
morning.

"Ah, dear Cecil! He will try to make you very wise and learned," said
she, nodding her head and smiling significantly. "But never mind: he
waltzes to perfection, and delights in a ball, no man more."

"Does he?" cried Bessie, amused and laughing. "That potent, grave, and
reverend signor can condescend, then, to frivolities! Oh, when shall we
have a ball that I may waltz with him?"

"Soon, if all go successfully at the election. Lady Angleby will give a
ball if Cecil win and you ask her."

"_I_ ask her! But I should never dare."

"She will be only too glad of the opportunity, and you may dare anything
with he