'No foolish love affair, I hope?' Beaufort almost fiercely demanded,
looking sternly in his daughter's agitated and flushed countenance as
he uttered the words. 'Perhaps,' he sarcastically continued, without
giving her time to reply--'perhaps you deem yourself marriageable at
the matron-like' age of nineteen, and have selected some country boor
for my son-in-law?'
This speech was directed at Herbert Lyddiard, and Amy felt it; but
her thoughts were at this moment occupied by another subject of
absorbing interest. 'No,' she returned with modest dignity; 'I have
at present no desire to alter _my_ condition, but I have for years
been intent upon bettering _yours_. I may be presumptuous in
supposing it possible that any effort of mine could do so; but I was
resolved to make the trial, and this shall speak for me.' As she
concluded, she drew from a closet the picture she had so anxiously
prepared, and displayed it to her parent's astonished gaze. Beaufort
could not speak, but stood for some minutes immovable, with his eyes
fixed on the piece, as if doubting the reality of what he beheld.
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