I do not _always_ call a point without showing it." "Your lordship is out of humour with yourself for a blunder that might happen to any man--it was as much my good luck as a good hand would have been, and so fortune be praised." "But what if with this Fortune had nought to do ?" replied Lord Etherington.--"What if, sitting down with an honest fellow and a friend like yourself, Mowbray, a man should rather choose to lose his own money, which he could afford, than to win what it might distress his friend to part with ?" "Supposing a case so far out of supposition, my lord," answered Mowbray, who felt the question ticklish--"for, with submission, the allegation is easily made, and is totally incapable of proof--I should say, no one had a right to think for me in such a particular, or to suppose that I played for a higher stake than was convenient." "And thus your friend, poor devil," replied Lord Etherington, "would lose his money, and run the risk of a quarrel into the boot!--We will try it another way--Suppose this good-humoured and simple-minded gamester had a favour of the deepest import to ask of his friend, and judged it better to prefer his request to a winner than to a loser ?" "If this applies to me, my lord," replied Mowbray, "it is necessary I should learn how I can oblige your lordship." "That is a word soon spoken, but so difficult to be recalled, that I am almost tempted to pause--but yet it must be said .-- Mowbray, you have a sister." Mowbray started.--"I have indeed a sister, my lord; but I can conceive no case in which her name can enter with propriety into our present discussion." "Again in the menacing mood!" said Lord Etherington, in his former tone; "now, here is a pretty fellow--he would first cut my throat for having won a thousand pounds from me, and then for offering to make his sister a countess!" "A countess, my lord ?" said Mowbray; "you are but jesting--you have never even seen Clara Mowbray." "Perhaps not--but what then ?--I may have seen her picture, as Puff says in the Critic, or fallen in love with her from rumour--or, to save farther suppositions, as I see they render you impatient, I may be satisfied with knowing that she is a beautiful and accomplished young lady, with a large fortune." "What fortune do you mean, my lord ?" said Mowbray, recollecting with alarm some claims, which, according to Meiklewham's view of the subject, his sister might form upon his property.--"What estate ?--there is nothing belongs to our family, save these lands of St.Ronan's, or what is left of them; and of these I am, my lord, an undoubted heir of entail in possession." "Be it so," said the Earl, "for I have no claim on your mountain realms here, which are, doubtless, -- --'renown'd of old For knights, and squires, and barons bold;' my views respect a much richer, though less romantic domain--a large manor, hight Nettlewood.

House old, but standing in the midst of such glorious oaks--three thousand acres of land, arable, pasture, and woodland, exclusive of the two closes, occupied by Widow Hodge and Goodman Trampclod--manorial rights--mines and minerals--and the devil knows how many good things besides, all lying in the vale of Bever." "And what has my sister to do with all this ?" asked Mowbray, in great surprise.
"Nothing; but that it belongs to her when she becomes Countess of Etherington." "It is, then, your lordship's property already ?" "No, by Jove! nor can it, unless your sister honours me with her approbation of my suit," replied the Earl.
"This is a sorer puzzle than one of Lady Penelope's charades, my lord," said Mr.Mowbray; "I must call in the assistance of the Reverend Mr.
Chatterly." "You shall not need," said Lord Etherington; "I will give you the key, but listen to me with patience .-- You know that we nobles of England, less jealous of our sixteen quarters than those on the continent, do not take scorn to line our decayed ermines with the little cloth of gold from the city; and my grandfather was lucky enough to get a wealthy wife, with a halting pedigree,--rather a singular circumstance, considering that her father was a countryman of yours.

She had a brother, however, still more wealthy than herself, and who increased his fortune by continuing to carry on the trade which had first enriched his family.

At length he summed up his books, washed his hands of commerce, and retired to Nettlewood, to become a gentleman; and here my much respected grand-uncle was seized with the rage of making himself a man of consequence.

He tried what marrying a woman of family would do; but he soon found that whatever advantage his family might derive from his doing so, his own condition was but little illustrated.