ted by Nesta and
mademoiselle that he gained a show of feeling; he had learnt that
feeling was wanted. Passion, he had not a notion of: otherwise he would
not be delaying; the interview, dramatized by the father of the young
bud of womanhood, would be taking place, and the entry into Lakelands
calculable, for Nataly's comfort, as under the aegis of the Cantor
earldom. Gossip flies to a wider circle round the members of a great
titled family, is inaudible; or no longer the diptherian whisper the
commonalty hear of the commonalty: and so we see the social uses of our
aristocracy survive. We do not want the shield of any family; it is the
situation that wants it; Nataly ought to be awake to the fact. One blow
and we have silenced our enemy: Nesta's wedding-day has relieved her
parents.

Victor's thoughts upon the instrument for striking that, blow, led him
to suppose Mr. Sowerby might be meditating on the extent of the young
lady's fortune. He talked randomly of money, in a way to shatter
Nataly's conception of him. He talked of City affairs at table, as it
had been his practice to shun the doing; and hit the resounding note
on mines, which have risen in the market like the crest of a serpent,
casting a certain spell upon the mercantile understanding. 'Fredi's
diamonds from her own mine, or what once was--and she still reserves a
share,' were to be shown to Mr. Sowerby.

Nataly respected the young fellow for not displaying avidity at the
flourish of the bait, however it might be affecting him; and she fancied
that he did laboriously, in his way earnestly, study her girl, to sound
for harmony between them, previous to a wooing. She was a closer reader
of social character than Victor; from refraining to run on the broad
lines which are but faintly illustrative of the individual one in
being common to all--unless we have hit by chance on an example of the
downright in roguery or folly or simple goodness. Mr. Sowerby'g bearing
to Nesta was hardly warmed by the glitter of diamonds. His next visit
showed him livelier in courtliness, brighter, fresher; but that was
always his way at the commencement of every visit, as if his reflections
on the foregone had come to a satisfactory conclusion; and the labours
of the new study of the maiden ensued again in due course to deaden him.

Gentleman he was. In the recognition of his quality as a man of
principle and breeding, Nataly was condemned by thoughts of Nesta's
future to question