emurely.

'Nothing like mamma's darling for upsetting a coach,' said Lord Milford.
'You ought to bring your cousin here, Valentine; we would assist the
development of his unsophisticated intelligence.'

'If I go down, I will propose it to him.'

'Why if?' said Mr. Cassilis; 'sort of thing I should like to see once
uncommonly: oxen roasted alive, old armour, and the girls of the village
all running about as if they were behind the scenes.'

'Is that the way you did it at your majority, George?' said Lord
Fitz-Heron.

'Egad! I kept my arrival at years of discretion at Brighton. I believe
it was the last fun there ever was at the Pavilion. The poor dear king,
God bless him! proposed my health, and made the devil's own speech; we
all began to pipe. He was Regent then. Your father was there, Valentine;
ask him if he remembers it. That was a scene! I won't say how it ended;
but the best joke is, I got a letter from my governor a few days after,
with an account of what they had all been doing at Brandingham, and
rowing me for not coming down, and I found out I had kept my coming of
age the wrong day.'

'Did you tell them?'

'Not a word: I was afraid we might have had to go through it over
again.'

'I suppose old Bellamont is the devil's own screw,' said Lord Milford.
'Rich governors, who have never been hard up, always are.'

'No: I believe he is a very good sort of fellow,' said Lord Valentine;
'at least my people always say so. I do not know much about him, for
they never go anywhere.'

'They have got Leander down at Montacute,'said Mr. Cassilis. 'Had
not such a thing as a cook in the whole county. They say Lord Eskdale
arranged the cuisine for them; so you will feed well, Valentine.'

'That is something: and one can eat before Easter; but when the balls
begin----'

'Oh! as for that, you will have dancing enough at Montacute; it is
expected on these occasions: Sir Roger de Coverley, tenants' daughters,
and all that sort of thing. Deuced funny, but I must say, if I am to
have a lark, I like Vauxhall.'

'I never met the Bellamonts,' said Lord Milford, musingly. 'Are there
any daughters?'

'None.'

'That is a bore. A single daughter, even if there be a son, may be made
something of; because, in nine cases out of ten, there is a round sum in
the settlements for the younger children, and she takes it all.'

'That is the case of Lady Blanche Bickerstaffe,' said Lord Fitz-Heron.
'She will have a hundred thousa