le, she busied herself collecting her fan and her
scent-bottle and her handkerchief, and a book she had been reading.

"Hadn't Virginie better come for these things?" said he, quietly.

"Oh, certainly," replied she, dropping them hurriedly on the table;
"I'm always transgressing; but I do hope, my Lord, with time, and with
that sincere desire to learn that animates me, I may yet attain to at
least so many of the habits of your Lordship's order as may enable me to
escape censure."

He smiled and bowed a courteous concurrence with the wish, but did not
speak. Though her lip now trembled with indignation, and her cheek
was flushed, she controlled her temper, and as she drew nigh the door
dropped a low and most respectful courtesy.

"Very nice, very nice, indeed; a thought, perhaps, too formal--I
mean for the occasion--but in admirable taste. Your Ladyship is grace
itself."

"My Lord, you are a model of courtesy."

"I cannot even attempt to convey what pleasure your words give me," said
he, pressing his hand to his heart and bowing low. Meanwhile, with a
darkening brow and a look of haughty defiance, she swept past him and
left the room.

"Is n't Marion well?" said Temple Bramleigh, as he entered a few
minutes later; "her maid told me she had gone to her room."

"Quite well: a little fagged, perhaps, by a day of visiting; nothing
beyond that. You have been dining at the embassy? whom had you there?"

"A family party and a few of the smaller diplomacies."

"To be sure. It was Friday. Any news stirring?"

"Nothing whatever."

"Does Bartleton talk of retiring still?"'

"Yes. He says he is sick of sending in his demand for retirement. That
they always say, 'We can't spare you; you must hold on a little longer.
If you go out now, there's Bailey and Hammersmith, and half a dozen
others will come insisting on advancement.'"

"Did n't he say Culduff too? eh, didn't he?" said the old lord, with a
wicked twinkle of the eye.

"I'm not sure he didn't," said Temple, blushing.

"He did, sir, and he said more--he said, 'Rather than see Culduff here,
I 'd stay on and serve these twenty years.'"

"I did n't hear him say that, certainly."

"No, sir, perhaps not, but he said it to himself, as sure as I stand
here. There is n't a country in Europe--I say it advisedly--where
intellect--I mean superior intellect--is so persistently persecuted as
in England. I don't want my enemy to have any heavier misfortune than
to be bo