for Miss Vavasor, but really--"

"Mr Cheesacre, what am I to say to you?"

"What are you to say to me? Say that you'll be mine. Say that I shall
be yours. Say that all I have at Oileymead shall be yours. Say that
the open carriage for a pair of ponies to be driven by a lady which
I have been looking at this morning shall be yours. Yes, indeed; the
sweetest thing you ever saw in your life,--just like one that the
lady of the Lord Lieutenant drives about in always. That's what you
must say. Come, Mrs Greenow!"

"Ah, Mr Cheesacre, you don't know what it is to have buried the pride
of your youth hardly yet twelve months."

"But you have buried him, and there let there be an end of it. Your
sitting here all alone, morning, noon, and night, won't bring him
back. I'm sorry for him; I am indeed. Poor Greenow! But what more can
I do?"

"I can do more, Mr Cheesacre. I can mourn for him in solitude and in
silence."

"No, no, no. What's the use of it,--breaking your heart for
nothing,--and my heart too. You never think of that." And Mr
Cheesacre spoke in a tone that was full of reproach.

"It cannot be, Mr Cheesacre."

"Ah, but it can be. Come, Mrs Greenow. We understand each other well
enough now, surely. Come, dearest." And he approached her as though
to put his arm round her waist. But at that moment there came a knock
at the door, and Jeannette, entering the room, told her mistress that
Captain Bellfield was below and wanted to know whether he could see
her for a minute on particular business.

"Show Captain Bellfield up, certainly," said Mrs Greenow.

"D---- Captain Bellfield!" said Mr Cheesacre.

CHAPTER XXI

Alice Is Taught to Grow Upwards, Towards the Light

Before the day came on which Alice was to go to Matching Priory, she
had often regretted that she had been induced to make the promise,
and yet she had as often resolved that there was no possible reason
why she should not go to Matching Priory. But she feared this
commencement of a closer connection with her great relations. She
had told herself so often that she was quite separated from them,
that the slight accident of blood in no way tied her to them or them
to her,--this lesson had been so thoroughly taught to her by the
injudicious attempts of Lady Macleod to teach an opposite lesson,
that she did not like the idea of putting aside the effect of that
teaching. And perhaps she was a little afraid of the great folk whom
she might probably