nd made
many advances towards intimacy. The two young ladies and their father
seemed equally pleased and interested in the Lunts, and when they left
Baden-Baden asked them to make them a visit in the autumn at their house
in Derbyshire.

Thinking of this, I am not much surprised. For the Colonel's manners are
unexceptionably good, with a simplicity and a self-reliance that mark a
true gentleman; while Mrs. Lunt is the loveliest and best-bred woman in
Barton, and consequently fit society for any nobleman.

When the Lunts went to England, in October, they visited these people.
And there they found Charles Lunt, a second-cousin of the Colonel's, a
New-Yorker, and a graduate of Oxford. His father had sent him to England
to be finished off, after Yale had done its best for him here. He and
Percy fell in love immediately, and matters came to a climax.

Colonel Lunt did not desire the connection at all. Charles's mother was
related to the family where they were visiting, and, as he himself
would feel it incumbent on him to state the facts relative to Percy's
birth, he foresaw distinctly only a mortifying relinquishment of the
alliance. Charles was, in fact, on his mother's side, second-cousin to
an English Earl. The name of the Earl I don't give, for the good reason
that the Colonel kept it a secret, and, even if I knew, I should not
wish to reveal it.

Before Colonel Lunt could act on his impressions and decisions, Charles
cut the knot by asking his relative, the Earl, to make proposals for
him. He was of age, with an independent fortune, and could please
himself, and it pleased him to marry Percy.

Then the Colonel asked to see Charles, and he was called in. He began by
declining the connection; but finding this mortifying and mysterious to
both the gentlemen, he ended by a plain statement of such of the facts
as he had been made acquainted with by Madame Guyot.

"I don't know the name of Percy's father," said the Colonel, "the poor
woman would give me no clew to him,--but he may be living,--he may some
time trace and claim her!"

"Does this make any difference to you, Charles?" said the Earl, when
Colonel Lunt had finished.

"Not a jot!" said Charles, warmly. "It isn't likely her father will ever
either trace or claim her; and, if he should even, and all should come
out, why, I care nothing for it,--nothing, I mean, in comparison with
Percy."

Of course then the Colonel had no objections.

"Now, is it best, all