316 THE MASTER OF THE HOUNDS. 



" Do you consider him then perfectly irresistible 1 " with an 

 arch smile. 



" Oh, no, not quite that ; but he has good sense enough 

 never to propose before being quite certain that he would be* 

 accepted." 



" Then he did not propose to Miss Douglas before leaving 



town ? " 



" Certainly not." 



" Well, really, the world is very ill-natured ; but perhaps he 

 is engaged to some one else 1 " 



"Not to my knowledge; although he does not confide 

 secrets of this kind to me." 



"Probably he has a 'penchant for some youDg lady who 

 lives in your neighbourhood % ' : 



'* That, I suspect, is the case," replied Fred • " but more I 

 cannot, if I would, tell." 



Mrs. Fortescue had heard too much now, and relapsed into 

 a thoughtful mood, from which she was rallied in turn, by Fred 

 Beauchamp saying, "You appear to take rather a deep in- 

 terest in my cousin's love affairs. Is he a very old friend of 

 yours % " 



" Not very," was the reply ; and a deeper tint stole over her 

 cheeks; "but we met several times during his short stay in 

 town, and I liked him very much, from being so different to 

 the generality of our fops and fine gentlemen. But don't you 

 think Miss Douglas exceedingly lovely % " 



"Ah, yes," replied Fred, "beautiful — too beautiful — but I 

 look at her as I do at a splendid three hundred-guinea horse — 

 beyond my reach ; and her guardian, Harcourt, will have a peer 

 for his ward — nothing short will do for the heiress. So you see 

 my falling in love with her is a hopeless affair." 



" Then you confess to being im love with her, Mr. Beau- 

 champ % " 



"I won't deny," he replied, "that I have been in that 

 predicament ; but the fit has passed, as others have before ; in 

 short, since the age of fourteen, I have always been the slave of 

 Cupid. First, I was smitten by a housemaid at our school, a 

 buxom young lady, nearly six feet high, who knocked out the 

 first flame by knocking me off a high-backed chair, on which I 

 had perched myself to snatch a kiss from my enchantress. In 

 falling against the edge of the table, a black eye was the conse- 

 quence, for which, not being able to give a satisfactory explana- 

 tion to our master, who declared I had been fighting with 



