m the very great favor that he will call upon her, if
possible, to-morrow. Her reason for presuming so far on his kindness
is of a very serious nature. Unfortunate family circumstances have
obliged her to take a course in which she can only turn for advice to
the great knowledge and judgment of Herr Klesmer.

"Pray get this sent to Quetcham at once, mamma," said Gwendolen, as she
addressed the letter. "The man must be told to wait for an answer. Let
no time be lost."

For the moment, the absorbing purpose was to get the letter dispatched;
but when she had been assured on this point, another anxiety arose and
kept her in a state of uneasy excitement. If Klesmer happened not to be
at Quetcham, what could she do next? Gwendolen's belief in her star, so
to speak, had had some bruises. Things had gone against her. A splendid
marriage which presented itself within reach had shown a hideous flaw.
The chances of roulette had not adjusted themselves to her claims; and
a man of whom she knew nothing had thrust himself between her and her
intentions. The conduct of those uninteresting people who managed the
business of the world had been culpable just in the points most
injurious to her in particular. Gwendolen Harleth, with all her beauty
and conscious force, felt the close threats of humiliation: for the
first time the conditions of this world seemed to her like a hurrying
roaring crowd in which she had got astray, no more cared for and
protected than a myriad of other girls, in spite of its being a
peculiar hardship to her. If Klesmer were not at Quetcham--that would
be all of a piece with the rest: the unwelcome negative urged itself as
a probability, and set her brain working at desperate alternatives
which might deliver her from Sawyer's Cottage or the ultimate necessity
of "taking a situation," a phrase that summed up for her the
disagreeables most wounding to her pride, most irksome to her tastes;
at least so far as her experience enabled her to imagine disagreeables.

Still Klesmer might be there, and Gwendolen thought of the result in
that case with a hopefulness which even cast a satisfactory light over
her peculiar troubles, as what might well enter into the biography of
celebrities and remarkable persons. And if she had heard her immediate
acquaintances cross-examined as to whether they thought her remarkable,
the first who said "No" would have surprised her.

CHAPTER XXII.

We please our