"If he were to marry well, that would bring your father round." "Yes,--it would." "And why should he not ?" Lady Laura paused before she answered; and then she told the whole story.

"He is violently in love, and the girl he loves has refused him twice." "Is it with Miss Effingham ?" asked Phineas, guessing the truth at once, and remembering what Miss Effingham had said to him when riding in the wood.
"Yes;--with Violet Effingham; my father's pet, his favourite, whom he loves next to myself,--almost as well as myself; whom he would really welcome as a daughter.

He would gladly make her mistress of his house, and of Saulsby.

Everything would then go smoothly." "But she does not like Lord Chiltern ?" "I believe she loves him in her heart; but she is afraid of him.

As she says herself, a girl is bound to be so careful of herself.