h that Maltravers
perceived, seated by himself in a corner, to which he had shrunk on
the entrance of Maltravers, a gray-haired solitary man,--it was Lord
Saxingham! The last time they had met was in the death-chamber of
Florence; and the old man forgot for the moment the anticipated dukedom,
and the dreamed-of premiership, and his heart flew back to the grave of
his only child! They saluted each other, and shook hands in silence. And
Vargrave--whose eye was on them--Vargrave, whose arts had made that old
man childless, felt not a pang of remorse! Living ever in the future,
Vargrave almost seemed to have lost his memory. He knew not what regret
was. It is a condition of life with men thoroughly worldly that they
never look behind!

The signal was given: in due order the party were marshalled into the
great hall,--a spacious and lofty chamber, which had received its last
alteration from the hand of Inigo Jones; though the massive ceiling,
with its antique and grotesque masques, betrayed a much earlier date,
and contrasted with the Corinthian pilasters that adorned the walls,
and supported the music-gallery, from which waved the flags of modern
warfare and its mimicries,--the eagle of Napoleon, a token of the
services of Lord Raby's brother (a distinguished cavalry officer in
command at Waterloo), in juxtaposition with a much gayer and more
glittering banner, emblematic of the martial fame of Lord Raby himself,
as Colonel of the B-----shire volunteers!

The music pealed from the gallery, the plate glittered on the board; the
ladies wore diamonds, and the gentlemen who had them wore stars. It was
a very fine sight, that banquet!--such as became the festive day of a
lord-lieutenant whose ancestors had now defied, and now intermarried,
with royalty. But there was very little talk, and no merriment. People
at the top of the table drank wine with those at the bottom; and
gentlemen and ladies seated next to each other whispered languidly in
monosyllabic commune. On one side, Maltravers was flanked by a Lady
Somebody Something, who was rather deaf, and very much frightened for
fear he should talk Greek; on the other side he was relieved by Sir John
Merton,--very civil, very pompous, and talking, at strictured intervals,
about county matters, in a measured intonation, savouring of the
House-of-Commons jerk at the end of the sentence.

As the dinner advanced to its close, Sir John became a little more
diffuse, though his voice