n
Tipperary;--not at all a desirable country to live in."

"Oh, dear, no! Don't they murder the people?"

"It's about five thousand a year, and out of that my mother has half
for her life."

"What an excellent family arrangement," said Lizzie. There was so
long a pause made between each statement that she was forced to make
some reply.

"You see, for a peer, the fortune is very small indeed."

"But then you have a salary;--don't you?"

"At present I have;--but no one can tell how long that may last."

"I'm sure it's for everybody's good that it should go on for ever so
many years," said Lizzie.

"Thank you," said Lord Fawn. "I'm afraid, however, there are a great
many people who don't think so. Your cousin Greystock would do
anything on earth to turn us out."

"Luckily, my cousin Frank has not much power," said Lizzie. And
in saying it she threw into her tone, and into her countenance, a
certain amount of contempt for Frank as a man and as a politician,
which was pleasant to Lord Fawn.

"Now," said he, "I have told you everything about myself which I was
bound, as a man of honour, to tell before--I--I--I--. In short you
know what I mean."

"Oh, Lord Fawn!"

"I have told you everything. I owe no money, but I could not afford
to marry a wife without an income. I admire you more than any woman I
ever saw. I love you with all my heart." He was now standing upright
before her, with the fingers of his right hand touching his left
breast, and there was something almost of dignity in his gesture and
demeanour. "It may be that you are determined never to marry again.
I can only say that if you will trust yourself to me,--yourself and
your child,--I will do my duty truly by you both, and will make your
happiness the chief object of my existence." When she had listened to
him thus far, of course she must accept him; but he was by no means
aware of that. She sat silent, with her hands folded on her breast,
looking down upon the ground; but he did not as yet attempt to seat
himself by her. "Lady Eustace," he continued, "may I venture to
entertain a hope?"

"May I not have an hour to think of it?" said Lizzie, just venturing
to turn a glance of her eye upon his face.

"Oh, certainly. I will call again whenever you may bid me."

Now she was silent for two or three minutes, during which he still
stood over her. But he had dropped his hand from his breast, and had
stooped, and picked up his hat ready for his departu