. It is one of the ways in which humble folk reconcile
themselves to lowly fortune; they ridicule their betters." And now she
gave a little low laugh to herself, as if some unuttered notion had just
amused her.

"What made you smile?" asked he.

"A very absurd fancy struck me."

"Let me hear it. Why not let me share in its oddity?"

"It might not amuse you as much as it amused me."

"I am the only one who can decide that point."

"Then I 'm not so certain it might not annoy you."

"I can assure you on that head," said he, gallantly.

"Well, then, you shall hear it. The caprice of a great divine has, so
to say, registered itself yonder, and will live, so long as stone and
mortar endure, as Bishop's Folly; and I was thinking how strange it
would be if another caprice just as unaccountable were to give a name to
a less pretentious edifice, and a certain charming cottage be known to
posterity as the Viscount's Folly. You're not angry with me, are you?"

"I'd be very angry indeed with you, with myself, and with the whole
world, if I thought such a casualty a possibility."

"I assure you, when I said it I did n't believe it, my Lord," said she,
looking at him with much graciousness; "and, indeed, I would never have
uttered the impertinence if you had not forced me. There, there goes the
first bell; we shall have short time to dress." And, with a very meaning
smile and a familiar gesture of her hand, she tripped up the steps and
disappeared.

"I think I 'm all right in that quarter," was his lordship's reflection
as he mounted the stairs to his room.

CHAPTER XII. AN EVENING BELOW AND ABOVE STAIRS.

It was not very willingly that Mr. Cutbill left the drawing-room, where
he had been performing a violoncello accompaniment to one of the young
ladies in the execution of something very Mendelssohnian and profoundly
puzzling to the uninitiated in harmonics. After the peerage he loved
counterpoint; and it was really hard to tear himself away from passages
of almost piercing shrillness, or those still more suggestive moanings
of a double bass, to talk stock and share-list with Colonel Bramleigh in
the library. Resisting all the assurances that "papa wouldn't mind it,
that any other time would do quite as well," and such like, he went
up to his room for his books and papers, and then repaired to his
rendezvous.

"I 'm sorry to take you away from the drawing-room, Mr. Cutbill," said
Bramleigh, as he entered; "but