th this
party to the inner pagoda. There was to be cards in one room, music in
another, dancing in a third, and, in this little room, there were prints
and chess-boards, etc.

'Here you will be quite to yourselves,' said Lady Clonbrony; 'let
me establish you comfortably in this, which I call my sanctuary--my
SNUGGERY--Colambre, that little table!--Miss Broadhurst, you play chess?
Colambre, you'll play with Miss Broadhurst--'

'I thank your ladyship,' said Miss Broadhurst, 'but I know nothing of
chess, but the moves. Lady Catharine, you will play, and I will look
on.'

Miss Broadhurst drew her seat to the fire; Lady Catharine sat down to
play with Lord Colambre; Lady Clonbrony withdrew, again recommending
Miss Broadhurst to Grace Nugent's care. After some commonplace
conversation, Lady Anne H---, looking at the company in the adjoining
apartment, asked her sister how old Miss Somebody was, who passed by.
This led to reflections upon the comparative age and youthful appearance
of several of their acquaintance, and upon the care with which mothers
concealed the age of their daughters. Glances passed between Lady
Catharine and Lady Anne.

'For my part,' said Miss Broadhurst, 'my mother would 'labour that point
of secrecy in vain for me; for I am willing to tell my age, even if
my face did not tell it for me, to all whom it may concern. I am past
three-and-twenty--shall be four-and-twenty the 5th of next July.'

'Three-and-twenty! Bless me! I thought you were not twenty!' cried Lady
Anne.

'Four-and-twenty next July!--impossible!' cried Lady Catharine.

'Very possible,' said Miss Broadhurst, quite unconcerned.

'Now, Lord Colambre, would you believe it? Can you believe it?' asked
Lady Catharine.

'Yes, he can,' said Miss Broadhurst. 'Don't you see that he believes it
as firmly as you and I do? Why should you force his lordship to pay a
compliment contrary to his better judgment, or to extort a smile from
him under false pretences? I am sure he sees that you, ladies, and I
trust he perceives that I, do not think the worse of him for this.'

Lord Colambre smiled now without any false pretence; and, relieved at
once from all apprehension of her joining in his mother's views, or of
her expecting particular attention from him, he became at ease with Miss
Broadhurst, shelved a desire to converse with her, and listened eagerly
to what she said. He recollected that Grace Nugent had told him that
this young lady had no c