Love is such a strong word, my dear."

"It is not half strong enough," said Emily, pressing her two hands
together. "But you do, Mamma?"

"I think he is very agreeable, certainly."

"And handsome?--only that goes for nothing."

"Yes, he is a fine-looking man."

"And clever? I don't know how it is; let there be who there may in
the room, he is always the best talker."

"He knows how to talk, certainly."

"And, Mamma, don't you think that there is a something,--I don't know
what,--something not at all like other men about him that compels
one to love him? Oh, Mamma, do say something nice to me! To me he is
everything that a man should be."

"I wish he were, my dear."

"As for the sort of life he has been leading, spending more money
than he ought, and all that kind of thing, he has promised to reform
it altogether; and he is doing it now. At any rate, you must admit,
Mamma, that he is not false."

"I hope not, my dear."

"Why do you speak in that way, Mamma? Does he talk like a man that
is false? Have you ever known him to be false? Don't be prejudiced,
Mamma, at any rate."

The reader will understand that when the daughter had brought her
mother as far as this, the elder lady was compelled to say "something
nice" at last. At any rate there was a loving embrace between them,
and an understanding that the mother would not exaggerate the
difficulties of the position either by speech or word.

"Of course you will have to see your papa to-morrow morning," Lady
Elizabeth said.

"George will tell him everything to-night," said Emily. She as she
went to her bed did not doubt but what the difficulties would melt.
Luckily for her,--so luckily!--it happened that her lover possessed
by his very birth a right which, beyond all other possessions, would
recommend him to her father. And then had not the man himself all
natural good gifts to recommend him? Of course he had not money or
property, but she had, or would have, property; and of all men alive
her father was the least disposed to be greedy. As she half thought
of it and half dreamt of it in her last waking moments of that
important day, she was almost altogether happy. It was so sweet to
know that she possessed the love of him whom she loved better than
all the world beside.

Cousin George did not have quite so good a time of it that night. The
first thing he did on his return from Ulleswater to Humblethwaite
was to write a line to his friend Lady Altringha