ave
Isaacs and Sons L50,000 for the two."

"Ah, indeed," said the Duchess, languidly rising; "let us go to
luncheon."

"But your Grace," interposed Lothaw, who was still quite young, and had
dropped on all-fours on the carpet in search of the missing gem,
"consider the value--"

"Dear friend," interposed the Duchess, with infinite tact, gently
lifting him by the tails of his dress-coat, "I am waiting for your arm."

CHAPTER II.

Lothaw was immensely rich. The possessor of seventeen castles, fifteen
villas, nine shooting-boxes, and seven town houses, he had other
estates of which he had not even heard.

Everybody at Plusham played croquet, and none badly. Next to their
purity of blood and great wealth, the family were famous for this
accomplishment. Yet Lothaw soon tired of the game, and after seriously
damaging his aristocratically large foot in an attempt to "tight
croquet" the Lady Aniseed's ball, he limped away to join the Duchess.

"I'm going to the hennery," she said.

"Let me go with you, I dearly love fowls--broiled," he added,
thoughtfully.

"The Duke gave Lady Montairy some large Cochins the other day,"
continued the Duchess, changing the subject with delicate tact.

"Lady Montairy,
Quite contrairy,
How do your cochins grow?"

sang Lothaw gayly.

The Duchess looked shocked. After a prolonged silence, Lothaw abruptly
and gravely said:--

"If you please, ma'am, when I come into my property I should like to
build some improved dwellings for the poor, and marry Lady Coriander."

"You amaze me, dear friend, and yet both your aspirations are noble and
eminently proper," said the Duchess; "Coriander is but a child,--and
yet," she added, looking graciously upon her companion, "for the matter
of that, so are you."

CHAPTER III.

Mr. Putney Giles's was Lothaw's first grand dinner-party. Yet, by
carefully watching the others, he managed to acquit himself creditably,
and avoided drinking out of the finger-bowl by first secretly testing
its contents with a spoon. The conversation was peculiar and
singularly interesting.

"Then you think that monogamy is simply a question of the thermometer?"
said Mrs. Putney Giles to her companion.

"I certainly think that polygamy should be limited by isothermal
lines," replied Lothaw.

"I should say it was a matter of latitude," observed a loud talkative
man opposite. He was an Oxford Professor with a taste for satire, a