' Then he had been very disagreeable indeed.
They dined together,--of course with all the luxury that wealth can
give. There was a well-appointed carriage to take them backwards
and forwards to the next square, such as an Earl should have. She
was splendidly dressed, as became an Earl's daughter, and he was
brilliant with some star which had been accorded to him by his
sovereign's grateful minister in return for staunch parliamentary
support. No one looking at them could have imagined that such a
father could have told such a daughter that she must marry herself
out of the way, because as an unmarried girl she was a burden.
During the dinner she was very gay. To be gay was a habit,--we may
almost say the work,--of her life. It so chanced that she sat
between Sir Timothy Beeswax, who in these days was a very great
man indeed, and that very Dolly Longstaff, whom Silverbridge in
his irony had proposed to her as a fitting suitor for her hand.
'Isn't Lord Silverbridge a cousin of yours?' asked Sir Timothy.
'A very distant one.'
'He has come over to us, you know.
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