am, Janet,' said her sister.
'She thought Robinson, the coachman, was waltzing with her over it, and
they went into a hole and stuck fast, while the red-flag traction
engineman prodded her with an umbrella till she was all over blood.
Now, if it had been anything rational, I should have thought something
of her second sight! I tell her 'twas suggested by--

"London Bridge is broken down,
Dance o'er my lady Lee!"'

'Well, I am quite certain those traction-engines will break it some
time or other,' said Lady Delmar. 'I am always trying to get John to
bring it before the magistrates, but he only laughs at me, and nothing
will induce Robinson to go the other way, because they have just been
mending the road on Lescombe Hill! Annaple, my dear, I can't allow you
another waltz; Mark must excuse you--I am going. It is half-past two,
and the carriage was ordered at two! Robinson will be in a worse
temper than ever if we keep him waiting.'

She bore her sister off to the cloak-room, and there, nearly an hour
later, the Egremonts found them still waiting the pleasure of the
implacable Robinson; but what was that in consideration of having kept
her sister from such a detrimental as poor Mark had become? So
muttered Mr. Egremont, in the satisfaction of having himself, with
gentlemanly severity, intimated the insuperable gulf between Miss
Egremont of Bridgefield and the Man of Umbrellas.

Moreover, his sister-in-law took care that he should hear that the
Duchess of Redcastle had pronounced his wife sweetly pretty and
lady-like, and talked of inviting them for a visit of a few nights.

'A bore,' observed he ungratefully, ''tis as dull as ditchwater.' But,
in truth, though the Canon's family, when in residence, were intimate
with the ducal family, Alwyn Egremont had never been at the castle
since the days of his earliest youth, and he was not quite prepared to
owe his toleration there to his wife's charms, or the Canoness's
patronage of her.

And innocent Alice only knew that everybody had been very kind to her,
and it was only a pity that her husband did not like her to notice poor
Gerard Godfrey.

CHAPTER XIV.

GOING AGEE.

'Gin ye were a brig as auld as me.'--BURNS.

'What's the matter?' exclaimed Mrs. Egremont, waking from a
doze,--'that bridge?'

'Bridge! Don't be such a fool! We aren't near it yet.'

The servant, his face looking blurred through the window, came to
explain t