n, the tailor said
that he would do as he was bidden. "We have sent for you because we
know that you have been so old a friend," said Mr. Flick, who did
not quite approve of the emissary whom he had been instructed by Sir
William to employ.

"I will do my best, sir," said Mr. Thwaite, making his bow. Thomas
Thwaite, as he went along the streets alone, determined that he would
perform this new duty imposed upon him without any reference to his
son.

CHAPTER VIII.

IMPOSSIBLE!

"They sent for me, Lady Lovel, to bid me come to your ladyship and
ask your ladyship whether you would consent to a marriage between
the two young people." It was thus that the tailor repeated for the
second time the message which had been confided to him, showing the
gall and also the pride which were at work about his heart by the
repeated titles which he gave to his old friend.

"They desire that Anna should marry the young lord!"

"Yes, my lady. That's the meaning of it."

"And what am I to be?"

"Just the Countess Lovel,--with a third of the property as your own.
I suppose it would be a third; but you might trust the lawyers to
settle that properly. When once they take your daughter among them
they won't scrimp you in your honours. They'll all swear that the
marriage was good enough then. They know that already, and have made
this offer because they know it. Your ladyship needn't fear now
but what all the world will own you as the Countess Lovel. I don't
suppose I'll be troubled to come up to London any more."

"Oh, my friend!" The ejaculation she made feeling the necessity of
saying something to soothe the tailor's pride; but her heart was
fixed upon the fruition of that for which she had spent so many years
in struggling. Was it to come to her at last? Could it be that now,
now at once, people throughout the world would call her the Countess
Lovel, and would own her daughter to be the Lady Anna,--till she also
should become a countess? Of the young man she had heard nothing
but good, and it was impossible that she should have fear in that
direction, even had she been timorous by nature. But she was bold
and eager, hopeful in spite of all that she had suffered, full of
ambition, and not prone to feminine scruples. She had been fighting
all her life in order that she and her daughter might be acknowledged
to be among the aristocrats of her country. She was so far a loving,
devoted mother that in all her battles she thought