“Something is going to happen; you are to be torn away from here, where you are so happy—­where we all love you, dear.  It is from that selfish old bachelor.  Listen:  ’Dear madam, my niece Lucy has been due here three days.  I have waited to see whether you would part with her without being dunned.  My curiosity on that point is satisfied, and I have now only my affection to consult, which I do by requesting you to put her and her maid into a carriage that will be waiting for her at your door twenty-four hours after you receive this note.  I have the honor to be, madam,’ an old brute!!”

“And you can smile; but that is you all over; you don’t care a straw whether you are happy or miserable.”

“Don’t I?”

“Not you; you will leave this, where you are a little queen, and go and bury yourself three months with that old bachelor, and nobody will ever gather from your face that you are bored to death; and here we are asked to the Cavendishes’ next Wednesday, and the Hunts’ ball on Friday—­you are such a lucky girl—­our best invitations always drop in while you are with us—­we go out three times as often during your months as at other times; it is your good fortune, or the weather, or something.”

“Dear aunt, this was your own arrangement with Uncle Fountain.  I used to be six months with each in turn till you insisted on its being three.  You make me almost laugh, both you and Uncle Fountain; what do you see in me worth quarreling for?”

“I will tell you what he sees—­a good little spiritless thing—­”

“I am larger than you, dear.”

“Yes, in body—­that he can make a slave of—­always ready to nurse him and his foe, or to put down your work and to take up his—­to play at his vile backgammon.”

“Piquet, please.”

“Where is the difference?—­to share his desolation, and take half his blue devils on your own shoulders, till he will hyp you so that to get away you will consent to marry into his set—­the county set—­some beggarly old family that came down from the Conquest, and has been going down ever since; so then he will let you fly—­with a string:  you must vegetate two miles from him; so then he can have you in to Backquette and write his letters:  he will settle four hundred a year on you, and you will be miserable for life.”

“Poor Uncle Fountain, what a schemer he turns out!”

“Men all turn out schemers when you know them, Miss Impertinence.  Well, dear, I have no selfish views for you.  I love my few friends too single-heartedly for that; but I am sad when I see you leaving us to go where you are not prized.”

“Indeed, aunt, I am prized at Font Abbey.  I am overrated there as I am here.  They all receive me with open arms.”

“So is a hare when it comes into a trap,” said Mrs. Bazalgette, sharply, drawing upon a limited knowledge of grammar and field-sports.

“No—­Uncle Fountain really loves me.”