ommon character; and, neglecting his move at
chess, he looked up at Grace as much as to say, 'DRAW HER OUT, pray.'

But Grace was too good a friend to comply with that request; she left
Miss Broadhurst to unfold her own character.

'It is your move, my lord,' said Lady Catharine.

'I beg your ladyship's pardon--'

'Are not these rooms beautiful, Miss Broadhurst?' said Lady Catharine,
determined, if possible, to turn the conversation into a commonplace,
safe channel; for she had just felt, what most of Miss Broadhurst's
acquaintance had in their turn felt, that she had an odd way of
startling people, by setting their own secret little motives suddenly
before them, 'Are not these rooms beautiful?'

'Beautiful!--Certainly.'

The beauty of the rooms would have answered Lady Catharine's purpose for
some time, had not Lady Anne imprudently brought the conversation back
again to Miss Broadhurst.

'Do you know, Miss Broadhurst,' said she, 'that if I had fifty sore
throats, I could not have refrained from my diamonds on this GALA night;
and such diamonds as you have! Now, really, I could not believe you to
be the same person we saw blazing at the opera the other night!'

'Really! could not you, Lady Anne? That is the very thing that
entertains me. I only wish that I could lay aside my fortune sometimes,
as well as my diamonds, and see how few people would know me then. Might
not I, Grace, by the golden rule, which, next to practice, is the best
rule in the world, calculate and answer that question?'

'I am persuaded,' said Lord Colambre, 'that Miss Broadhurst has friends
on whom the experiment would make no difference.'

'I am convinced of it,' said Miss Broadhurst; 'and that is what makes me
tolerably happy, though I have the misfortune to be an heiress.'

'That is the oddest speech,' said Lady Anne. 'Now I should so like to be
a great heiress, and to have, like you, such thousands and thousands at
command.'

'And what can the thousands upon thousands do for me? Hearts, you
know, Lady Anne, are to be won only by radiant eyes. Bought hearts your
ladyship certainly would not recommend. They're such poor things--no
wear at all. Turn them which way you will, you can make nothing of
them.'

'You've tried then, have you?' said Lady Catharine.

'To my cost. Very nearly taken in by them half a dozen times; for they
are brought to me by dozens; and they are so made up for sale, and the
people do so swear to you that it'