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152 'I am not quite so sure of that,' said Miss Furnival. After which the gentlemen came into the drawing-room.

Augustus Staveley had gone to work in a manner which he conceived to be quite systematic, having before him the praiseworthy object of making a match between Felix Graham and Sophia Furnival. 'By George, Graham,' he had said, 'the finest girl in London is coming down to Noningsby; upon my word I think she is.'

'And brought there expressly for your delectation, I suppose.'

'Oh no, not at all; indeed, she is not exactly in my style; she is too,—too,—too— in point of fact, too much of a girl for me. She has lots of money, and is very clever, and all that kind of thing.'

'I never knew you so humble before.'

'I am not joking at all. She is a daughter of old Furnival's, whom by-the-by I hate as I do poison. Why my governor has him down at Noningsby I can't guess. But I tell you what, old fellow, he can give his daughter five-and-twenty thousand pounds. Think of that, Master Brook.' But Felix Graham was a man who could not bring himself to think much of such things on the spur of the moment, and when he was introduced to Sophia, he did not seem to be taken with her in any wonderful way.

Augustus had asked his mother to help him, but she had laughed at him. 'It would be a splendid arrangement,' he had said with energy. 'Nonsense, Gus,' she had answered. 'You should always let those things take their chance. All I will ask of you is that you don't fall in love with her yourself; I don't think her family would be nice enough for you.'

But Felix Graham certainly was ungrateful for the friendship spent upon him, and so his friend felt it. Augustus had contrived to whisper into the lady's ear that Mr. Graham was the cleverest young man now rising at the bar, and as far as she was concerned, some amount of intimacy might at any rate have been produced; but he, Graham himself, would not put himself forward. 'I will pique him into it,' said Augustus to himself, and therefore when on this occasion they came into the drawing-room, Staveley immediately took a vacant seat beside Miss Furnival, with the very friendly object which he had proposed to himself.

There was great danger in this, for Miss Furnival was certainly handsome, and Augustus Staveley was very susceptible. But what will not a man go through for his friend? 'I hope we are to have the honour of your company as far as Monkton Grange the day we meet there,' he said. The hounds were to meet at Monkton Grange, some seven miles from Noningsby, and all the sportsmen from the house were to be there.

'I shall be delighted,' said Sophia, 'that is to say if a seat in the carriage can be spared for me.'