ted exclusively
to the affairs of his property."

"Poor Livy!" said Miss Kennyfeck, letting go his arm and ascending the
stairs. As Miss Kennyfeck drew near the door of the drawing room, she
began to sing sufficiently loud to be heard by those within, and thus,
judiciously heralding her approach, she opened the door and entered.
Sir Harvey had been standing beside the chimney-piece with Olivia, but
turned hastily round, his countenance exhibiting that state of mingled
doubt, fear, and satisfaction, which vouched for the cleverness of the
young lady's tactics. Nothing, in truth, could have been more adroit
than her management; performing a feat which among naval men is known
as "backing and filling," she succeeded in manoeuvring for nigh an hour,
without ever advancing or retiring. We should be unwilling to deny our
reader the value of a lesson, did we not feel how the fairer portion of
our audience would weary over a recital, in every detail of which they
could instruct our ignorance.

The late Lord Londonderry was famed for being able to occupy "the
house" for any given time without ever communicating a fact, raising a
question, solving a difficulty, or, what is harder than all, committing
_himself_. But how humbly does this dexterity appear beside the
young-lady-like tact that, opposed by all the importunity of a lover,
can play the game in such wise that after fifty-odd minutes the "pieces"
should stand upon the board precisely as they did at the beginning!

"How do you do, Sir Harvey? Why are you not on that committee of costume
in the little drawing-room where the great question at issue is between
the time of the crusades and the swell mob?"

"I have been far more agreeably occupied, in a manner that my
feelings"--here Olivia looked disappointed,--"my heart, I mean," said
he--and the young lady looked dignified--"my feelings and my heart,
too," resumed be, horribly puzzled which tack to sail upon, "assure me
must nearly concern my future happiness."

"How pleasant!" said Cary, laughingly, as if she accepted the speech as
some high-flown compliment; "you are so fortunate to know what to do on
a dreary wet day like this."

Olivia, whose eyes were bent upon her sister, changed color more than
once. "The signal was flying," "Stop firing," just at the moment
when the enemy had all but "struck;" in less figurative phrase, Miss
Kennyfeck's throat was encircled by the scarf which she had forgotten to
lay aside on l