owe to thee of balmy breath, some gentle hours when life
had fewest charms. And we are grateful for all this, to say nothing of
your cider and your junkets.

The Duke arrived just as the setting sun crowned the proud palace with
his gleamy rays. It was a pile which the immortal Inigo had raised in
sympathy with the taste of a noble employer, who had passed his
earliest years in Lombardy. Of stone, and sometimes even of marble, with
pediments and balustrades, and ornamental windows, and richly-chased
keystones, and flights of steps, and here and there a statue, the
structure was quite Palladian, though a little dingy, and, on the whole,
very imposing.

There were suites of rooms which had no end, and staircases which had no
beginning. In this vast pile, nothing was more natural than to lose your
way, an agreeable amusement on a rainy morning. There was a collection
of pictures, very various, by which phrase we understand not select.
Yet they were amusing; and the Canalettis were unrivalled. There was a
regular ball-room, and a theatre; so resources were at hand. The scenes,
though dusty, were numerous; and the Duke had provided new dresses. The
park was not a park; by which we mean, that it was rather a chase than
the highly-finished enclosure which we associate with the first title.
In fact, Pen Bronnock Chase was the right name of the settlement; but
some monarch travelling, having been seized with a spasm, recruited his
strength under the roof of his loyal subject, then the chief seat of the
House of Hauteville, and having in his urgency been obliged to hold a
privy council there, the supreme title of palace was assumed by right.

The domain was bounded on one side by the sea; and here a yacht and
some slight craft rode at anchor in a small green bay, and offered an
opportunity for the adventurous, and a refuge for the wearied. When you
have been bored for an hour or two on earth, it sometimes is a change to
be bored for an hour or two on water.

The house was soon full, and soon gay. The guests, and the means
of amusing them, were equally numerous. But this was no common
_villeggiatura_, no visit to a family with their regular pursuits and
matured avocations. The host was as much a guest as any other. The young
Duke appointed Lord Squib master of the ceremonies, and gave orders
for nothing but constant excitement. Constant excitement his Lordship
managed to maintain, for he was experienced, clever, careless and g