as she was disposed to be a little restive under the excellent family arrangement, her mother and the Earl had consented that nothing should be said about it. There was n young Lord Martingale at Gower's Court for the Christmas holidays who was heir to a marquisate, and as Lady Gower was satisfied that Eveline was prettier than she promised to be, if she had any chance there the less that was said about the Manchester family the better. But Lord Martingale knew his own value too well to throw himself away on the daughter of the spendthrift Darlington, and Eveline's style was not at all to his taste, no that he baffled his hostess's attempts to throw them together. Though Lady Gower was a leader of fashion, and very exclusive in many of her ideas, she had a pride in getting up agreeable parties, and this could not be made up entirely of eligibles. It was necessary for the success even of parties in town to have a large sprinkling of detrimentals, in the shape of younger sons, clever young professional men, officers with very little beyond their pay, and even of a few litterateurs, now that literature was becoming so much the rage. If for parties in town,how much more valuable were such people for a six weeks' campaign at Christmas, when the neighbours were slow, and when there were possibi-
