d her
how glad he was to see her again, and how well her stuff dress of dark
claret became her, or would, if she had left off that knot of Scotch
plaid ribbon at the throat, which marred the effect.

Bessie's checks flushed at this criticism upon the ribbon she liked so
much, and had bought for this very occasion, with a view to please her
cousin. He was in very high spirits, it seemed to her, as she listened
to his gay badinage and laughter. But how handsome he was in his new
holiday suit, every item of which was faultless, and of the latest
style. If his mother stinted him in other ways, she surely did not where
his wardrobe was concerned, and he had the reputation of being one of
the best dressed young men in London.

When dinner was over, and he had finished his cigar which he smoked in
the presence of Bessie, she asked him of the American, who was coming
the next evening.

"Oh, yes, Grey Jerrold," Neil said, "and the finest specimen of a Yankee
you ever saw."

"I don't believe I like Yankees," Bessie said curtly, and Neil replied:

"You will like this one; you cannot help it, every body likes him, from
the shabbiest old woman in the railway carriage to the prettiest girl in
Piccadilly. Perhaps it was a liberty I ought not to have taken, inviting
him here without consulting you first, but I wanted you to see him, and
him to see you," and there was a vehemence in Neil's voice and manner
which Bessie could not understand. "He is rich, or will be by and by,"
Neil said. "And the most generous chap I ever saw. He was always helping
us out of scrapes at school. He has a rich aunt in America, who keeps
him well supplied with money, besides what his father gave him when he
came of age."

"What did you say he was doing in Carnarvon?" Bessie asked, and Neil
replied:

"Hunting up some old woman, or young woman, I don't know which, as I
never paid much attention to what he did say about it, I believe,
though, there is some money in the case. I wish it was for me," Neil
said, and then suddenly he sank into a thoughtful, abstracted mood, from
which he did not rouse till the clock struck ten and it was time to say
good-night. "I have not been very good company for the last hour, I have
been worried lately and am not quite myself," he said to Bessie, when
she asked if he were ill and if there was anything she could do for him
or send to his room.

And Neil had been worried and exasperated and wrought upon until he was
ha