He says it would be cruel; but
he does long for a sight of her bright face!"
"Well, we shall be brought into meeting in a simple natural way."
"And Babie? How does she look? I am ashamed of it; but I can't help
thinking more about seeing her than this new cousin. I can fancy
her—-handsome, composed, and serene."
"That may be so ten or twenty years hence! but now she is the
tenderest little clinging thing you ever saw."
"And my ideal would have been that Cecil should have chosen some one
superior; but after all, I believe he is really more likely to be
raised by being looked up to. He has been our boy too long."
"Quite true; I have watched him content with the level my impertinent
children assign him here, but now trying to be manly for Essie's
sake. You have not told me of Sydney."
"So angry at the folly of passing over Babie, that I was forced to
give her a hint to be silent before Duke. She collapsed, much
impressed. Forgive me, if it was a betrayal; but she is two years
older now, and would not have been a safe companion unless warned.
Hark! Is that the door-bell?"
Therewith the private interview period set in, and Babie made such
use of her share of it, that when Lina was produced in the drawing-
room before dinner she sat on Cecil's knee, and gravely observed that
she had a verse to repeat to him—-
"The phantom blackcock of Kilnaught
Is a marvellous bird yet uncaught;
Go out in all weather,
You see not a feather,
Yet a marvellous work it has wrought,
That phantom blackcock of Kilnaught.
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