love with him, and then—" 

 "And then, what?" asked Ethelind. 

 "Why it must end in disappointment to both; for if he is poor and I am poor, it would be little use our coming together; but were I rich, as I expected to have been, then I might have set my cap at your young curate, and rewarded his merit." 

 "Oh!" said Ethelind, "he deserves to be rich, he would make such good use of wealth, for even now, he is very charitable." 

 "Charitable!" re–echoed Beatrice, "a curate, on perhaps less than a hundred a year, must have a deal to be charitable with. Absurd: I grant you he may have the heart, but certainly not the means." 

 "I know not," said Ethelind, "but I hear continually of the good he does, and his kindness to the poor, and doubt if the Honourable Frederic Eardly will do as much." 

 "Out upon these proud scions of nobility, I have not common patience with the younger members of the aristocracy, taking holy orders solely for the sake of aggrandizing the elder branches of the family; they are rarely actuated by pious motives." 

 "We had only one service a–day till Mr. Barclay came, and now he officiates morning and evening, besides managing to do duty, in the afternoon, for a sick clergyman, who lives five miles off, and has a large family, two of whom our worthy curate educates,—" 

 "No more," Ethelind, or my heart will be irrecoverably gone; but what large house is that I see among the trees?" 

 "That is Eardly House." 

 "And do the family ever reside there?" 

 "They have not, since we have been in this part of the world, but when in England, I am told, they spend part of every summer here." 

 "And if they come, they will spoil both our pleasure and our privacy; say what you will, great people are a nuisance in a small village." 

 "To those who are situated like us, I grant it is unpleasant, but they may do a great deal of good to their poor tenants. But, hark, it is striking two,—our dinner hour,—mamma will wonder what is become of us; there is a short cut through the Park, which we will take, it will save, at least, a quarter of a mile." So through the Park they went, and as they left it, to cross the road, a gentleman suddenly turned 

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