t his
mornings were always given up to business and letter-writing, he usually
came down in the afternoon in some toilet admirably suited to the
occasion, whatever it might be, of riding, driving, or walking. In fact,
a mere glance at his Lordship's costume would have unmistakably
shown whether a canter, the croquet lawn, or a brisk walk through the
shrubberies were in the order of the day.

"Do you remember, Cutty," said he, suddenly, "what was my engagement for
this morning? I promised somebody to go somewhere and do something; and
I 'll be shot if I can recollect."

"I am totally unable to assist your Lordship," said the other, with
a smile. "The young men, I know, are out shooting, and Miss Eleanor
Bramleigh is profiting by the snow to have a day's sledging. She
proposed to me to join her, but I did n't see it."

"Ah! I have it now, Cutty. I was to walk over to Portabandon, to return
the curate's call. Miss Bramleigh was to come with me."

"It was scarcely gallant, my Lord, to forget so charming a project,"
said the other, slyly.

"Gallantry went out, Cutty, with slashed doublets. The height and the
boast of our modern civilization is to make women our perfect equals,
and to play the game of life with them on an absolutely equal footing."

"Is that quite fair?"

"I protest I think it is. Except in a few rare instances, where the men
unite to the hardier qualities of the masculine intelligence the nicer,
finer, most susceptible instincts of the other sex,--the organization
that more than any other touches on excellence,--except, I say, in these
cases, the women have the best of it. Now what chance, I ask you, would
_you_ have, pitted against such a girl as the elder Bramleigh?"

"I 'm afraid a very poor one," said Cutbill, with a look of deep
humility.

"Just so, Cutty, a very poor one. I give you my word of honor I have
learned more diplomacy beside the drawing-room fire than I ever acquired
in the pages of the blue-books. You see it's a quite different school
of fence they practise; the thrusts are different, and the guards are
different. A day for furs essentially, a day for furs," broke he in,
as he drew on a coat lined with sable, and profusely braided and
ornamented. "What was I saying? where were we?"

"You were talking of women, my Lord."

"The faintest tint of scarlet in the under vest--it was a device of the
Regent's in his really great day--is always effective in cold, bright,
frosty weather.