got it, and no eyesight left to see you're no
gentleman. Sir Charles's land you'll never have; a better man has got
it, and means to keep it for him and his. Here, Polly! Polly! Polly!
take this man down to the kitchen, and teach him manners if you can: he
is not fit for my drawing-room, by a long chalk."

Polly arrived in time to see the flashing eyes, the swelling veins, and
to hear the fair orator's peroration.

"What, you are in your tantrums again!" said she. "Come along, sir.
Needs must when the devil drives. You'll break a blood-vessel some day,
my lady, like your father afore ye."

And with this homely suggestion, which always sobered Miss Somerset,
and, indeed, frightened her out of her wits, she withdrew the offender.
She did not take him into the kitchen, but into the dining-room, and
there he had a long talk with her, and gave her a sovereign.

She promised to inform him if anything important should occur.

He went away, pondering and scowling deeply.

CHAPTER IV.

SIR CHARLES BASSETT was now living in Elysium. Never was rake more
thoroughly transformed. Every day he sat for hours at the feet of Bella
Bruce, admiring her soft, feminine ways and virgin modesty even more
than her beauty. And her visible blush whenever he appeared suddenly,
and the soft commotion and yielding in her lovely frame whenever he
drew near, betrayed his magnetic influence, and told all but the blind
she adored him.

She would decline all invitations to dine with him and her father--a
strong-minded old admiral, whose authority was unbounded, only, to
Bella's regret, very rarely exerted. Nothing would have pleased her
more than to be forbidden this and commanded that; but no! the admiral
was a lion with an enormous paw, only he could not be got to put it
into every pie.

In this charming society the hours glided, and the wedding-day drew
close. So deeply and sincerely was Sir Charles in love that when Mr.
Oldfield's letter came, appointing the day and hour to sign Miss
Somerset's deed, he was unwilling to go, and wrote back to ask if the
deed could not be sent to his house.

Mr. Oldfield replied that the parties to the deed and the witnesses
must meet, and it would be unadvisable, for several reasons, to
irritate the lady's susceptibility previous to signature; the
appointment having been made at her house, it had better remain so.

That day soon came.

Sir Charles, being due in Mayfair at 2 P.M., compensated hims