ing which would have given her an ache
for the moment. She had thought about him, as girls will think of men
as to whom they own to themselves that it is possible that they may
be in love with them some day;--and she liked him much. She also
liked Lord Alfred, but the liking had been altogether of a different
kind. In regard to Lord Alfred she had been quite sure, from the
first days of her intercourse with him, that she could never be in
love with him. He was to her no more than old Mr. Crutchley or young
Mr. Latheby,--a man, and a good sort of man, but no more than a man.
To worship Lord Alfred must be impossible to her. She had already
conceived that it would be quite possible for her to worship her
Cousin George in the teeth of all the hard things that she had heard
of him. The reader may be sure that such a thought had passed through
her mind when she asked her mother whether Cousin George was to be
accepted as a black sheep or a white one?

The ball was a very grand affair, and Emily Hotspur was a very great
lady. It had come to be understood that the successful suitor for her
hand would be the future lord of Humblethwaite, and the power with
which she was thus vested gave her a prestige and standing which can
hardly be attained by mere wit and beauty, even when most perfectly
combined. It was not that all who worshipped, either at a distance
or with passing homage, knew the fact of the heiress-ship, or had
ever heard of the L20,000 a year; but, given the status, and the
worshippers will come. The word had gone forth in some mysterious
way, and it was acknowledged that Emily Hotspur was a great young
lady. Other young ladies, who were not great, allowed themselves to
be postponed to her almost without jealousy, and young gentlemen
without pretensions regarded her as one to whom they did not dare
to ask to be introduced. Emily saw it all, and partly liked it, and
partly despised it. But, even when despising it, she took advantage
of it. The young gentlemen without pretensions were no more to her
than the chairs and tables; and the young ladies who submitted to her
and adored her,--were allowed to be submissive, and to adore. But of
this she was quite sure,--that her Cousin George must some day be the
head of her own family. He was a man whom she was bound to treat with
attentive regard, if they who had the custody of her chose to place
her in his company at all.

At this ball there were some very distinguished pe