ngsby were on fire;
but could any such fire be worse than these pernicious love flames?
He had also suggested another calamity, and as Lady Staveley
remembered that, she acknowledged to herself that the Fates were not
so cruel to her as they might have been. So she kissed her daughter,
again assured her that she was by no means angry with her, and then
they parted.

This trouble had now come to such a head that no course was any
longer open to poor Lady Staveley, but that one which she had adopted
in all the troubles of her married life. She would tell the judge
everything, and throw all the responsibility upon his back. Let him
decide whether a cold shoulder or a paternal blessing should be
administered to the ugly young man up stairs, who had tumbled off
his horse the first day he went out hunting, and who would not earn
his bread as others did, but thought himself cleverer than all the
world. The feelings in Lady Staveley's breast towards Mr. Graham at
this especial time were not of a kindly nature. She could not make
comparisons between him and Peregrine Orme without wondering at her
daughter's choice. Peregrine was fair and handsome, one of the
curled darlings of the nation, bright of eye and smooth of skin,
good-natured, of a sweet disposition, a young man to be loved by
all the world, and--incidentally--the heir to a baronetcy and a
good estate. All his people were nice, and he lived close in the
neighbourhood! Had Lady Staveley been set to choose a husband for
her daughter she could have chosen none better. And then she counted
up Felix Graham. His eyes no doubt were bright enough, but taken
altogether he was,--at least so she said to herself--hideously ugly.
He was by no means a curled darling. And then he was masterful in
mind, and not soft and pleasant as was young Orme. He was heir to
nothing; and as to people of his own he had none in particular. Who
could say where he must live? As likely as not in Patagonia, having
been forced to accept a judgeship in that new colony for the sake of
bread. But her daughter should not go to Patagonia with him if she
could help it! So when the judge came home that evening, she told him
all before she would allow him to dress for dinner.

"He certainly is not very handsome," the judge said, when Lady
Staveley insisted somewhat strongly on that special feature of the
case.

"I think he is the ugliest young man I know," said her ladyship.

"He looks very well in his wig,