r William, when he had read the letter. "We are
not going to be done in that way. It was all very well going to that
Serjeant as he has the case in hand, though a worse messenger in an
affair of love--"

"Not love, as yet, Mr. Solicitor," said Mr. Flick.

"I mean it to be love, and I'm not going to be put off by Serjeant
Bluestone. We must get to the lady by some other means. Do you write
to that tailor down at Keswick, and say that you want to see him."

"Will that be regular, Sir William?"

"I'll stand the racket, Mr. Flick." Mr. Flick did write to Thomas
Thwaite, and Thomas Thwaite came up to London and called at Mr.
Flick's chambers.

When Thomas Thwaite received his commission he was much rejoiced.
Injustice would be done him unless so much were owned on his behalf.
But, nevertheless, some feeling of disappointment which he could not
analyze crept across his heart. If once the girl were married to Earl
Lovel there would be an end of his services and of his son's. He had
never really entertained an idea that his son would marry the girl.
As the reader will perhaps remember, he had warned his son that he
must seek a sweetheart elsewhere. He had told himself over and over
again that when the Countess came to her own there must be an end of
this intimacy,--that there could be nothing in common between him,
the radical tailor of Keswick, and a really established Countess.
The Countess, while not yet really established, had already begged
that his son might be instructed not to call her daughter simply by
her Christian name. Old Thwaite on receiving this intimation of the
difference of their positions, though he had acknowledged its truth,
had felt himself bitterly aggrieved, and now the moment had come. Of
course the Countess would grasp at such an offer. Of course it would
give her all that she had desired, and much more than she expected.
In adjusting his feelings on the occasion the tailor thought but
little of the girl herself. Why should she not be satisfied? Of the
young Earl he had only heard that he was a handsome, modest, gallant
lad, who only wanted a fortune to make him one of the most popular
of the golden youth of England. Why should not the girl rejoice
at the prospect of winning such a husband? To have a husband must
necessarily be in her heart, whether she were the Lady Anna Lovel,
or plain Anna Murray. And what espousals could be so auspicious as
these? Feeling all this, without much of calculatio