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30 The entrance of some visitors interrupted the conversation, and they left the window. Lord Allerton drew a deep breath, and put up his sketch. "And so," muttered he, "the sweet, simple, and quiet Mary marries me for a house in town, an opera-box, and a diamond necklace." He sauntered on in a reverie, divided between the remembrance of Miss Granard's soft blue eyes, and Miss Aubrey's sweet and soft expression of feeling. The time past away, and, as he returned to the house, he was met by Lady Rotheles. "What," exclaimed she, "loitering about! I suppose I must not ask for my drawing." Lord Allerton said something about the fineness of the morning having tempted him to walk. "Well," replied the Countess, "there is a fatality about to-day; nobody does what they intended to do. We meant to have driven over to the Priory this morning, but Lady Anne and Mary have just declared off." "Why?" asked his lordship, who remembered that the Priory had been the chief subject of his and Miss Granard's conversation, the previous evening. He thought that his description of the beautiful old ruins had interested her to the last degree, to say nothing of the view they commanded of his own hanging woods. "The Duke of Evandale," replied Lady Rotheles, "has just sent a courier to announce his intention of staying here to-night, on his way to the North; and Mary Granard having walked during the morning for