im introduced to papa? Not a word of the meeting
could she mention to her sister; for Miss Arabel was one of those
amiable beings not uncommon in ball-rooms, who will not risk the peace
of mind of a friend by making her acquainted with a rich or
fascinating partner on any account. And if this holds good with a
friend, much more in the case of Miss Arabel did it hold good with a
sister. So she sat in her own room and devised fifty expedients for
legitimating her acquaintance with the interesting unknown.

But while Surbridge Hall is frightened from its propriety, let us pass
over for a moment to the hostile camp, and see what is going on there.
A beautiful young girl is sitting at a table, on which a number of
maps and plans are laid out; and, while her eyes are busily running
over the various lines and measurements, her small white hand is
resting we are sorry to say, without making the smallest effort for
liberty, within that of the very same young gentleman whose appearance
we have already commemorated. Beautiful blue eyes they are, and fitter
for other employment than to pore over architectural or horticultural
designs; and so she seems to think, for she occasionally lifts them to
those of her companion, and a sweet smile brightens over all her face.
That is Fanny Smith, the granddaughter of Thomas Roe--the child of a
Yorkshire parson, who had been lucky enough to win the heart of Mary
Roe--and wise enough not to despise her father, though he lived in
Riches Court.

"But grandpapa says it is of no use, Charles, to look at all these
plans for houses. He'll never build on the new ground, for he says he
is determined to establish us at Surbridge Hall."

"The old gentleman is too sanguine," replied Charles. "He will never
persuade the present proprietor to leave it."

"Oh, he will, though! You don't know what a determined man grandpapa
is. He'll weary them out--or shame them away."

"Shame!" enquired the other--"How do you think shame can have any
effect in people so lost to truth, and so encased in ignorance and
conceit?"

"But grandpapa will expose them--and, besides, he'll pay them
handsomely to go. I don't the least despair of getting quit of them."

"Why, if people would only take the trouble to enquire into the actual
facts of any part of their behaviour, and not take their own account
of it--the boastful falsehoods of the nephew, the malicious
insinuations of the aunt, their disregard of truth in serious a