Sink or Swim? , Volume I

Before the summer days had begun to shorten, and by the time that Arthur Vavasour's evident admiration for young Mrs. Beacham had begun to make his more cool and sensible younger brother seriously uneasy, the period -- namely, the end of August -- was fixed for the marriage of the heir with Miss Sophia Duberly, the only child of one of the richest _nobodies_ in the county. A fortnight previous to the epoch named, Arthur would, unless, as Horace facetiously remarked, anything happened to the contrary, attain the mature age of twenty-one. As regarded the latter event, Lady Millicent had continued to maintain a dogged and portentous silence. She was well aware that her children, the girls especially, had hoped and expected that Arthur's "coming of age" would not pass over entirely without the "praise and honour due" to a rich man's son so situated; and though the traditional ox need not be exactly roasted whole, nor gigantic bonfires lighted on the occasion, yet Lady Millicent was as well aware as if the county newspapers had not persistently proclaimed the fact that England expected her on this occasion to do her duty.

"I do really believe she would hinder Atty coming of age at all if she could," Kate said one day, when Horace had "run down" for an hour to brighten up his sisters, and see how things in general were going on. "Mamma does so hate any of us being jolly."