Lord Seely clasped his hands behind his back, and walked up and down the room in a stiff, abrupt kind of march. At length he stopped opposite to her ladyship, who was assiduously soothing Fido; Fido having, for some occult reason, become violently exasperated by his master’s walking about 杭州下城区不正规的足浴店 the room.

“Why, in the first place——do send that brute away,” said his lordship, sharply.

“There! he’s quiet now. Good Fido! Good boy! Mustn’t bark and growl at master. Yes; you were saying——?”

“I was saying that, in the first place, Castalia must be ten years older than this boy.”

“About that, I should say. But if they don’t mind that, I don’t see what it matters to us.”

“And he has not any means, nor any prospect of earning any, that I can see.”

“Why, for that matter, Castalia hasn’t a shilling in the world, you know. We have to find her in everything, and so has your sister Julia, when Castalia goes to stay with her. And if these two could set their horses together—could, in a word, make a match of it—why, you might do something to provide for the two together, don’t you see? Killing two birds with one stone!”

“Very much like killing two birds, indeed! What are they to live on?”

“If Ancram makes up to Castalia, you must get him a place. Something modest, of course. I don’t see that they can either of them expect a grand 杭州桑拿信息网站 thing.”

“Putting all other considerations aside,” said my lord, drawing himself up, “it would be a very odd sort of match for Castalia Kilfinane.”

“Come! his birth is as good as hers, any way. If his father was an apothecary, her mother was a poor curate’s daughter.”

“Rector’s daughter, Belinda. Dr. Vyse was a learned man, and the rector of his parish.”

“Oh, well, it all comes to the same thing. And as to an odd 杭州足疗店最

多的在哪里 sort of match, why, perhaps, an odd match is better than none at all. You know Castalia’s no beauty. She don’t grow younger; and she’ll be unbearable in her temper, if once she thinks she’s booked for an old maid.”

Poor Lord Seely was much disquieted. He had a kindly feeling for his orphan niece, which would have ripened into affection if Miss Castalia’s character had been a little less repellent. And he really liked Algernon Errington so much that the notion of his marrying Castalia appeared to him in the light of a sacrifice, even 杭州龙凤论坛贵族宝贝 although he held his own opinion as to the comparative goodness of the Ancram and Kilfinane blood. But, nevertheless, such was Lady Seely’s force of character, that many days had not elapsed before his lordship was silenced, if not convinced, on the subject. And the invitation to go to Switzerland 杭州养生按摩 was given to Algernon, and accepted.
CHAPTER XIX.
As the spring advanced, letters from Algernon Errington arrived rather frequently at Whitford. His mother had ample scope for the exercise of her peculiar talent, in boasting about the reception Algy had met with from her great relations in town, the fine society he frequented, and the prospect of still greater distinctions in store for him. One or two troublesome persons, to be sure, would ask for details, and inquire whether Lord Seely meant to get Algy a place, and what tangible benefits he had it in contemplation to bestow on him. 杭州洗浴中心 But to all such prosy, plodding individuals, Mrs. Errington presented a perspective of vague magnificence, which sometimes awed and generally silenced them.

The big square letters on Bath post paper, directed in Algernon’s clear, graceful handwriting, 杭州夜生活论坛网 and bearing my Lord Seely’s frank, in the form of a blotchy sprawling autograph in one corner, were, however, palpable facts; and Mrs. Errington made the most of them. It was seldom that she had not one of them in her pocket. She would pull them out, sometimes as though in mere absence of mind, sometimes avowedly of set purpose, but in either case she failed not to make them the occasion for an almost endless variety of prospective and retrospective boasting.

It must be owned that Algernon’s letters were delightful. They were written with such a freshness of observation, such a sense of enjoyment, such a keen appreciation of 杭州桑拿按摩小姐 fun—tempered always by a wonderful knack of keeping his own figure in a favourable light—that passages from them were read aloud, and quoted at Whitford tea-parties with a most enlivening effect.

“Those 杭州洗浴按摩 letters are written pro bono publico,” Minnie Bodkin observed confidentially to her mother. “No human being would address such communications to Mrs. Errington for her sole perusal.”

“Well, I don’t know, Minnie! Surely it is natural enough that he should write long letters to his mother, even without expecting her to read them aloud to people.”

“Very natural; but not just such letters as he does write, I think.”