e might have the honor to wait on
her Ladyship, came a few lines on the back of his own card, saying,
"Two o'clock, and be punctual." There did not seem to be any unnecessary
courtesy in this curt intimation; but he dressed himself carefully
for the interview, and with his cravat properly arranged by Julia, who
passed his whole appearance in review, he set out for the pretty Villa
of the Chestnuts, where her Ladyship lived.

"I don't suppose that I'm about to do anything very unworthy, Julia,"
said he, as he bade her good-bye; "but I assure you I feel lower in my
own esteem this morning than I have known myself since--since--"

"Since you tumbled over the sunk fence, perhaps," said she, laughing,
and turned back into the house.

L'Estrange soon found himself at the gate of the villa, and was
conducted by a servant in deep mourning through a very beautiful garden
to a small kiosk, or summerhouse, where a breakfast-table was spread. He
was punctual to the moment; but as her Ladyship had not yet appeared he
had ample time to admire the beauty of the Sevres cups of a pale blue,
and the rich carving of the silver service--evidently of antique mould,
and by a master hand. The rare exotics which were disposed on every
side, amongst which some birds of bright plumage were encaged, seemed to
fill up the measure of this luxurious spot, and impressed him with--he
knew not what exalted idea of her who should be its mistress.

He waited at first patiently enough--there was much to interest and
amuse him; but at last, as nigh an hour had elapsed, and she had not
appeared, a feeling, half of irritation at the thought of neglect, and
half doubt lest he should have mistaken what the servant said, began to
worry and distress him. A little pendule on a bracket played a few
bars of a waltz, and struck three. Should he wait any longer? was the
question he put to himself. His sense of shame on leaving home at the
thought of presenting himself before a patron came back upon him now
with redoubled force. He had often felt that the ministers who preached
for a call were submitting themselves to a very unworthy ordeal. The
being judged by those they were appointed to teach seemed in itself
little short of an outrage; but the part he was now playing was
infinitely worse; he had actually come to show himself, to see if, when
looked at and talked to, her Ladyship would condescend to be his patron,
and as it were to impress the indignity more str