m all one beaming tint of gorgeous
purple, would give one flutter, and in another light would flash with
golden green or fiery scarlet. No less startling and unexpected were
the aspects of Lord Fitzjocelyn, 'Every thing by starts, and nothing
long;' sometimes absorbed in study, sometimes equally ardent over a
childish game; wild about philanthropic plans, and apparently
forgetting them the instant a cold word had fallen on them; attempting
everything, finishing nothing; dipping into every kind of book, and
forsaking it after a cursory glance; ever busy, yet ever idle; full of
desultory knowledge, ranging through all kinds of reading and natural
history, and still more full of talk. This last was perhaps his most
decided gift. To any one, of whatever degree, he would talk, he could
hardly have been silent ten minutes with any human being, except
Frampton or his father, and whether deep reflections or arrant nonsense
came out of his mouth, seemed an even chance, though both alike were in
the same soft low voice, and with the same air of quaint pensive
simplicity. He was exceedingly provoking, and yet there was no being
provoked with him!

He was so sincere, affectionate, and obliging, that not to love him was
impossible, yet that love only made his faults more annoying, and Mrs.
Ponsonby could well understand his father's perpetual restless anxiety,
for his foibles were exactly of the sort most likely to tease such a
man as the Earl, and the most positively unsatisfactory part of his
character was the insouciance that he displayed when his trifling or
his wild projects had given umbrage. Yet, even here, she could not but
feel a hope, such as it was, that the carelessness might be the effect
of want of sympathy and visible affection from his father, whose very
anxiety made him the more unbending; and that, what a worse temper
might have resented, rendered a good one gaily reckless and unheeding.

She often wondered whether she should try to give a hint--but Lord
Ormersfield seemed to dread leading to the subject, although on all
else that interested him he came to her as in old times, and seemed
greatly refreshed and softened by her companionship.

An old friend and former fellow-minister had proposed spending a night
at Ormersfield. He was the person whom the Earl most highly esteemed,
and, in his own dignified way, he was solicitous that the household
should be in more than usually perfect order, holding a long c