ead me into bad
company; and surely you would not have me neglect or look coldly on one
who was so much attached to my parents. If he is not a gentleman, and is
looked down on by the world, it is not for his sister's son to make him
conscious of it.'

'I like your feelings, Guy; I can say nothing against it, but that I am
much afraid your uncle is not highly principled.'

'You have only Philip's account of him.'

'You are resolved?'

'Yes. I do not like not to take your advice, but I do believe this is my
duty. I do not think my determination is made in self-will,' said Guy,
thoughtfully; 'I cannot think that I ought to neglect my uncle, because
I happen to have been born in a different station, which is all I have
heard proved against him,' he added, smiling. 'You will forgive me, will
you not, for not following your advice? for really and truly, if you
will let me say so, I think you would not have given it if Philip had
not been talking to you.'

Mrs. Edmonstone confessed, with a smile, that perhaps it was so; but
said she trusted much to Philip's knowledge of the world. Guy agreed to
this; though still declaring Philip had no right to set him against his
uncle, and there the discussion ended.

Guy went to London. Philip thought him very wilful, and his aunt very
weak; and Mr. Edmonstone, on coming home, said it could not be helped,
and he wished to hear no more about the matter.

CHAPTER 12

Her playful smile, her buoyance wild,
Bespeak the gentle, mirthful child;
But in her forehead's broad expanse,
Her chastened tones, her thoughtful glance,
Is mingled, with the child's light glee,
The modest maiden's dignity.

One summer's day, two years after the ball and review, Mary Ross and her
father were finishing their early dinner, when she said,--

'If you don't want me this afternoon, papa, I think I shall walk to
Hollywell. You know Eveleen de Courcy is there.'

'No, I did not. What has brought her?'

'As Charles expresses it, she has over-polked herself in London, and is
sent here for quiet and country air. I want to call on her, and to
ask Sir Guy to give me some idea as to the singing the children should
practise for the school-feast?'

'Then you think Sir Guy will come to the feast?'

'I reckon on him to conceal all the deficiencies in the children's
singing.'

'He won't desert you, as he did Mrs. Brownlow?'

'O papa! you surely did not think him to blame