and
put together in the morning. He may be a good soldier--good anything you
will--but, Diacho! to be married to that! He is not civilized. None of
you English are. You have no place in the drawing-room. You are like so
many intrusive oxen--absolutely! One of your men trod on my toe the other
night, and what do you think the creature did? Jerks back, then the half
of him forward--I thought he was going to break in two--then grins, and
grunts, "Oh! 'm sure, beg pardon, 'm sure!" I don't know whether he
didn't say, MARM!'

The Countess lifted her hands, and fell away in laughing horror. When her
humour, or her feelings generally, were a little excited, she spoke her
vernacular as her sisters did, but immediately subsided into the
deliberate delicately-syllabled drawl.

'Now that happened to me once at one of our great Balls,' she pursued. 'I
had on one side of me the Duchesse Eugenia de Formosa de Fontandigua; on
the other sat the Countess de Pel, a widow. And we were talking of the
ices that evening. Eugenia, you must know, my dears, was in love with the
Count Belmarana. I was her sole confidante. The Countess de Pel--a
horrible creature! Oh! she was the Duchess's determined enemy-would have
stabbed her for Belmarana, one of the most beautiful men! Adored by every
woman! So we talked ices, Eugenic and myself, quite comfortably, and that
horrible De Pel had no idea in life! Eugenia had just said, "This ice
sickens me! I do not taste the flavour of the vanille." I answered, "It
is here! It must--it cannot but be here! You love the flavour of the
vanille?" With her exquisite smile, I see her now saying, "Too well! it
is necessary to me! I live on it!"--when up he came. In his eagerness,
his foot just effleured my robe. Oh! I never shall forget! In an instant
he was down on one knee it was so momentary that none saw it but we
three, and done with ineffable grace. "Pardon!" he said, in his sweet
Portuguese; "Pardon!" looking up--the handsomest man I ever beheld; and
when I think of that odious wretch the other night, with his "Oh! 'm
sure, beg pardon, 'm sure! 'pon my honour!" I could have kicked him--I
could, indeed!'

Here the Countess laughed out, but relapsed into:

'Alas! that Belmarana should have betrayed that beautiful trusting
creature to De Pel. Such scandal! a duel!--the Duke was wounded. For a
whole year Eugenia did not dare to appear at Court, but had to remain
immured in her country-house, where she heard t