can,
in his manner,--at all events in his temper." The longer he thought over
these things the more they distressed him; and, at last, so far from
being overjoyed, as he expected, at the visit of his distinguished
friend, he saw the day of his coming dawn with dismay and misgiving.
Indeed, had such a thing as putting him off been possible, it is likely
he would have done it.

The long-looked-for and somewhat feared Saturday came at last, and with
it came a note of a few lines from Maitland. They were dated from a
little village in Wicklow, and ran thus:--

"Dear L.,--I have come down here with a Yankee, whom I
chanced upon as a travelling companion, to look at the
mines,--gold, they call them; and if I am not seduced into
a search after nuggets, I shall be with you some time--I
cannot define the day--next week. The country is prettier
and the people less barbarous than I expected; but I hear
your neighborhood will compensate me for both
disappointments.

"Yours,

"N. M."

"Well! are we to send the carriage into Coleraine for him, Mark?" asked
Sir Arthur, as his son continued to read the letter, without lifting his
eyes.

"No," said Mark, in some confusion. "This is a sort of put-off. He
cannot be here for several days. Some friend or acquaintance has dragged
him off in another direction;" and he crushed the note in his hand,
afraid of being asked to read or to show it.

"The house will be full after Tuesday, Mark," said Lady Lyle. "The Gores
and the Masseys and the M'Clintocks will all be here, and Gambier Graham
threatens us with himself and his two daughters."

"If they come," broke in Mark, "you'll have my rooms at your disposal."

"I delight in them," said Mrs. Trafford; "and if your elegantly
fastidious friend should really come, I count upon them to be perfect
antidotes to all his impertinence. Sally Graham and the younger one,
whom her father calls 'Dick,' are downright treasures when one is in
want of a forlorn hope to storm town-bred pretension."

"If Maitland is to be baited, Alice, I 'd rather the bullring was
somewhere else," said her brother, angrily.

"The real question is, shall we have room for all these people and their
followers?" said Lady Lyle.

"I repeat," said Mark, "that if the Graham girls are to be here, I 'm
off. They are the most insufferably obtrusive and aggressive women I
ever met; and I 'd rather take boat and pass a month