'

'Oh! My father would have been very glad to see you; but we really are
dull kind of people, not at all in your way, and I really do not think
that you lost much amusement.'

'What better amusement, what more interesting occupation, could I have
had than to visit the place where I passed my earliest and my happiest
hours? 'Tis nearly fifteen years since I was at Dacre.'

'Except when you visited us at Easter. We regretted our loss.'

'Ah! yes! except that,' exclaimed the Duke, remembering his jaeger's
call; 'but that goes for nothing. I of course saw very little.'

'Yet, I assure you, you made a great impression. So eminent a personage,
of course, observes less than he himself is observed. We had a graphical
description of you on our return, and a very accurate one, too; for I
recognised your Grace to-night merely from the report of your visit.'

The Duke shot a shrewd glance at his companion's face, but it betrayed
no indication of badinage, and so, rather puzzled, he thought it best to
put up with the parallel between himself and his servant. But Miss Dacre
did not quit this agreeable subject with all that promptitude which he
fondly anticipated.

'Poor Lord St. Jerome,' said she, 'who is really the most unaffected
person I know, has been complaining most bitterly of his deficiency in
the _air noble_. He is mistaken for a groom perpetually; and once, he
says, had a _douceur_ presented to him in his character of an ostler.
Your Grace must be proud of your advantage over him. You would have been
gratified by the universal panegyric of our household. They, of course,
you know, are proud of their young Duke, a real Yorkshire Duke, and they
love to dwell upon your truly imposing appearance. As for myself, who
am true Yorkshire also, I take the most honest pride in hearing them
describe your elegant attitude, leaning back in your britzska, with your
feet on the opposite cushions, your hat arranged aside with that air of
undefinable grace characteristic of the Grand Seigneur, and, which is
the last remnant of the feudal system, your reiterated orders to drive
over an old woman. You did not even condescend to speak English, which
made them quite enthusiastic--'

'Oh, Miss Dacre, spare me!'

'Spare you! I have heard of your Grace's modesty; but this excessive
sensibility, under well-earned praise, surprises me!'

'But, Miss Dacre, you cannot indeed really believe that this vulgar
ruffian, this grim scarecrow, this