to 'keep him
down,'" said Jack, sturdily.

"At all events," cried Temple, "he need not be presented to Lord
Culduff."

"I suspect you will see very little of him after dinner," observed
Harding, in his meek fashion, "That wonderful '32 port will prove a
detainer impossible to get away from."

"I 'll keep him company, then. I rather like to meet one of those
cross-grained dogs occasionally."

"Not impossibly you'll learn something more of that same 'public
opinion' of our neighbors regarding us," said Marion, haughtily.

"With all my heart," cried the sailor, gayly; "they 'll not ruffle my
temper, even if they won't flatter my vanity."

"Have you asked the L'Estranges, Marion?" said Augustus.

"We always ask them after church; they are sure to be disengaged," said
she. "I wish, Nelly, that you, who are such a dear friend of Julia's,
would try and persuade her to wear something else than that eternal
black silk. She is so intently bent on being an Andalusian. Some one
unluckily said she looked so Spanish, that she has got up the dress,
and the little fan coquetry, and the rest of it, in the most absurd
fashion."

"Her grandmother was a Spaniard," broke in Nelly, warmly.

"So they say," said the other, with a shrug of the shoulders.

"There's a good deal of style about her," said Temple, with the tone of
one who was criticising what he understood. "She sings prettily."

"Prettily?" groaned Jack. "Why, where, except amongst professionals,
did you ever hear her equal?"

"She sings divinely," said Ellen; "and it is, after all, one of her
least attractions."

"No heroics, for Heaven's sake; leave that to your brothers, Nelly, who
are fully equal to it. I really meant my remark about her gown for good
nature."

"She's a nice girl," said Augustus, "though she is certainly a bit of a
coquette."

"True; but it's very good coquetry," drawled out Temple. "It's not that
jerking, uncertain, unpurpose-like style of affectation your English
coquette displays. It is not the eternal demand for attention or
admiration. It is simply a desire to please thrown into a thousand
little graceful ways, each too slight, and too faint, to be singled out
for notice, but making up a whole of wonderful captivation."

"Well done, diplomacy! egad! I did n't know there was that much blood
in the Foreign Office," cried Jack, laughing, "and now I 'm off to look
after my night-lines. I quite forgot all about them till this minute."

"T