V. LORD COURLAND CONTINUES UNDECIDED.
|While Tom and his fair friends were pursuing their course, Chetwynd and the two young ladies were quitting the gay scene.
As they made their way through the throng, they encountered Lord Courland and Scrope Danvers, who had been watching them from afar, and had both come to the conclusion that the two prettiest girls to be seen in the Park on that morning were Miss Barfleur and Miss Calverley.
Lord Courland did not know which he admired most; at one moment he thought Emmeline the prettiest, but the next he gave the preference to Mildred.
“Your cousin, Miss Barfleur, is certainly a most charming girl, Scrope!” he said; “but——”
“You prefer Miss Calverley,” supplied the other. “No; I don't say that,” rejoined Lord Courland. “But Miss Calverley has lovely features, and an enthralling expression—at least, I find it so.”
“I see you are half in love with her already, my lord,” said Scrope, rather disappointed. “I quite admit that Miss Calverley is very beautiful; but don't forget that my cousin Emmeline is a great heiress.”
“I am only indulging in a little sentiment, my dear boy,” said Lord Courland. “Either of those girls must be admired for herself alone. Your fair cousin needs no large fortune to enhance her attractions—neither does Miss Calverley. Looking at them as equally well endowed in this respect, I should be puzzled to choose, even if choice were allowed me. But when to almost matchless beauty Miss Barfleur adds the possession of great wealth, there can be no hesitation.”
“There I entirely concur with your lordship's opinion,” said Scrope; “and had not my uncle, Sir Leycester, been a very crotchety fellow, she would have been married long ago. Even your lordship would have found some difficulty with him.”
“I dare say,” he replied. “But who is that with them?”