'And he is rich, you say?'

'Yes, rich enough to satisfy even mamma.'

'That is fortunate,' replied Alison, with a sigh, as she recalled her father's bitter opposition to her own engagement, and all the wiles and worry of Cadbury.

'Fortunate indeed; but there is about Bevil——'

'BEVIL!' exclaimed Alison, startled by the uncommon name.

'Don't snap me up so! Yes, Bevil is his name—sweetly pretty I think it—Bevil Goring.'

'And he is rich, you say?'

'Yes; has twenty or thirty thousand a year at least.'

It cannot be the same, though the conjunction of name is very singular, said Alison in her agitated heart.

'Is he a merchant,' she asked, 'a city man?'