_Arundel's Warning_

IN THE morning of the young Duke's departure for Twickenham, as Miss
Dacre and Lady Caroline St. Maurice were sitting together at the house
of the former, and moralising over the last night's ball, Mr. Arundel
Dacre was announced.

'You have just arrived in time to offer your congratulations, Arundel,
on an agreeable event,' said Miss Dacre. 'Lord St. Maurice is about to
lead to the hymeneal altar----'

'Lady Sophy Wrekin; I know it.'

'How extremely diplomatic! The _attache_ in your very air. I thought,
of course, I was to surprise you; but future ambassadors have such
extraordinary sources of information.'

'Mine is a simple one. The Duchess, imagining, I suppose, that my
attentions were directed to the wrong lady, warned me some weeks past.
However, my congratulations shall be duly paid. Lady Caroline St.
Maurice, allow me to express----'

'All that you ought to feel,' said Miss Dacre. 'But men at the present
day pride themselves on insensibility.'

'Do you think I am insensible, Lady Caroline?' asked Arundel.

'I must protest against unfair questions,' said her Ladyship.

'But it is not unfair. You are a person who have now seen me more than
once, and therefore, according to May, you ought to have a perfect
knowledge of my character. Moreover, you do not share the prejudices of
my family. I ask you, then, do you think I am so heartless as May would
insinuate?'

'Does she insinuate so much?'

'Does she not call me insensible, because I am not in raptures that your
brother is about to marry a young lady, who, for aught she knows, may be
the object of my secret adoration?'

'Arundel, you are perverse,' said Miss Dacre.

'No, May; I am logical.'

'I have always heard that logic is much worse than wilfulness,' said
Lady Caroline.

'But Arundel always was both,' said Miss Dacre. 'He is not only
unreasonable, but he will always prove that he is right. Here is your
purse, sir!' she added with a smile, presenting him with the result of
her week's labour.

'This is the way she always bribes me, Lady Caroline. Do you approve of
this corruption?'

'I must confess, I have a slight though secret kindness for a little
bribery. Mamma is now on her way to Mortimer's, on a corrupt embassy.
The _nouvelle mariee_, you know, must be reconciled to her change of lot
by quite a new set of playthings. I can give you no idea of the necklace
that our magnificent cousin, in spite of his wound, h