recovery, which I owe in very truth to the sweet being who has brought
new life alike of body and mind to me, and who must think I have
requited her so cruelly."

CHAPTER XXVII. CYTHEREA'S BOWER.

There Citherea, goddesse was and quene,
Honourid highly for her majeste,
And eke her sonne, the mighty god I weene,
Cupid the blinde, that for his dignite
A M lovers worshipp on ther kne.
There was I bid on pain of dethe to pere,
By Mercury, the winged messengre.--CHAUCER.

By twelve o'clock on the ensuing day Mr. Belamour, with Eugene and
Jumbo, was set down at a hotel near Whitehall, to secure apartments,
while the Major went on to demand his daughter from Lady Belamour,
taking with him Betty, whom he allowed to be a much better match for my
Lady than he could be. Very little faith in his cousin Urania remained
to him in the abstract, yet even now he could not be sure that she would
not talk him over and hoodwink him in any actual encounter. Sir Amyas
likewise accompanied him, both to gratify his own anxiety and to secure
admission. The young man still looked pale and worn with restless
anxiety; but he had, in spite of remonstrances, that morning discarded
his sling, saying that he should return to his quarters. Let his Colonel
do his worst then; he had still more liberty than if compelled to return
to his mother's house.

Lady Belamour had, on her second marriage, forsaken her own old
hereditary mansion in the Strand, where Sir Jovian had died, and which,
she said, gave her the vapours. Mr. Wayland, whose wealth far exceeded
her own, had purchased one of the new houses in Hanover Square, the
fashionable quarter and very much admired; but the Major regretted the
gloomy dignity of the separate enclosure and walled court of Delavie
House, whereas the new one, in modern fashion, had only an area and
steps between the front and the pavement.

The hall door stood wide open, with a stately porter within, and lackeys
planted about at intervals. Grey descended from the box, and after some
inquiry, brought word that "her Ladyship was at breakfast," then, at a
sign from his master, opened the carriage door. Sir Amyas, taking
Betty by the tips of her fingers, led her forward, receiving by the way
greetings and inquiries from the servants, whose countenances showed him
to be a welcome arrival.

"Is it a reception day, Maine?" he asked of a kind of major-domo whom he
met on the top of the