He never coquets with me I assure you," said she, "for I never give him an opportunity."

"No, because at present his brother has the advantage of him. If you do not coquet with the military man, at least you listen to the scholar, and it may be he is the most dangerous of the two. It is the general idea of the country that he is in love with you; that—
"The general idea of the country!" cried Celestina; "how can the country possibly know any thing about him or about me?"
"My dear friend," interrupted Vavasour, "you cannot be ignorant that in these places the people could not exist if their curiosity did not keep their idleness from total stagnation. They will talk, and let them about one another, but I won't have them talk of you, who are of another order of beings: in short, I am jealous of you for my friend, and don't like to hear that Lord Castlenorth has paid off all Willoughby's incumbrances, and that he has procured him the reversion of his titles, to engage him to break off his connection

with you, which it is said he formed before he came of age, and therefore thought himself obliged to fulfil."
Celestina cried with great emotion—"Dear Sir! but how false and foolish is all this."
"It is so," resumed Vavasour; "and what follows is equally or more so, yet it is I find generally believed."
"And what is it?"
"Why that Willoughby, having scruples about suddenly leaving you, and leaving you in comparative indigence, Lord Castlenorth has given you five thousand pounds; which, with what was before left you by Mrs. Willoughby, and the promise of a very considerable living in the gift of the Castlenorths to a clergyman if you marry one, have rendered you a desirable object in Mr. Thorold's eyes as a wife for his youngest son, whom finally you have accepted of, and are to be married to very soon; as Miss Fitz-Hayman has insisted upon this before she gives her hand to her

cousin, which is also to happen very soon in Italy."
"Miss Fitz-Hayman!" said Celestina; turning pale; "and pray, my good Vavasour, where have you learned this legend?"
"In London," replied he, "I collected enough to make-me uneasy about your situation. I picked up more since I came down to Cranfields, for his wife