f the barges, so there we were in a dreadful state--tossed
up and down like corks upon great waves made by steamers till I made up
my mind for a drowning. Well, at last we got back again, but couldn't
reach the carriage for the crowd; and I don't know what we should have
done if a gentleman hadn't come--sent by Mrs. Belmaine, who was in a
great fright about us; then he was introduced to me, and--I wonder how it
will end!'

'Was there anything so wonderful in the beginning, then?'

'Yes. One of the coolest and most practised men in London was
ill-mannered towards me from sheer absence of mind--and could there be
higher flattery? When a man of that sort does not give you the
politeness you deserve, it means that in his heart he is rebelling
against another feeling which his pride suggests that you do not deserve.
O, I forgot to say that he is a Mr. Neigh, a nephew of Mr. Doncastle's,
who lives at ease about Piccadilly and Pall Mall, and has a few acres
somewhere--but I don't know much of him. The worst of my position now is
that I excite this superficial interest in many people and a deep
friendship in nobody. If what all my supporters feel could be collected
into the hearts of two or three they would love me better than they love
themselves; but now it pervades all and operates in none.'

'But it must operate in this gentleman?'

'Well, yes--just for the present. But men in town have so many
contrivances for getting out of love that you can't calculate upon
keeping them in for two days together. However, it is all the same to
me. There's only--but let that be.'

'What is there only?' said Picotee coaxingly.

'Only one man,' murmured Ethelberta, in much lower tones. 'I mean, whose
wife I should care to be; and the very qualities I like in him will, I
fear, prevent his ever being in a position to ask me.'

'Is he the man you punished the week before last by forbidding him to
come?'

'Perhaps he is: but he does not want civility from me. Where there's
much feeling there's little ceremony.'

'It certainly seems that he does not want civility from you to make him
attentive to you,' said Picotee, stifling a sigh; 'for here is a letter
in his handwriting, I believe.'

'You might have given it to me at once,' said Ethelberta, opening the
envelope hastily. It contained very few sentences: they were to the
effect that Christopher had received her letter forbidding him to call;
that he had therefore at first