ave it back again. Ladies, of course, must
have a costume on purpose. But I am fond of anything that requires a
costume. Don't you like everything out of the common way? I do."
Florence assured him that their tastes were wholly dissimilar, as she
liked everything in the common way. "That's what I call an uncommonly
pretty girl," he said afterward to M. Grascour, while Sir Magnus was
talking to Sir Thomas. "What an eye!"

"Yes, indeed; she is very lovely."

"My word, you may say that! And such a turn of the shoulders! I don't
say which are the best-looking, as a rule, English or Belgians, but
there are very few of either to come up to her."

"Anderson, can you tell us how many tons of steel rails they turn out at
Liege every week? Sir Thomas asks me, just as though it were the
simplest question in the world."

"Forty million," said Anderson,--"more or less."

"Twenty thousand would, perhaps, be nearer the mark," said M. Grascour;
"but I will send him the exact amount to-morrow."

CHAPTER XV.

MR. ANDERSON'S LOVE.

Lady Mountjoy had certainly prophesied the truth when she said that Mr.
Anderson would devote himself to Florence. The first week in Brussels
passed by quietly enough. A young man can hardly declare his passion
within a week, and Mr. Anderson's ways in that particular were well
known. A certain amount of license was usually given to him, both by Sir
Magnus and Lady Mountjoy, and when he would become remarkable by the
rapidity of his changes the only adverse criticism would come generally
from Mr. Blow. "Another peerless Bird of Paradise," Mr. Blow would say.
"If the birds were less numerous, Anderson might, perhaps, do
something." But at the end of the week, on this occasion, even Sir
Magnus perceived that Anderson was about to make himself peculiar.

"By George!" he said one morning, when Sir Magnus had just left the
outer office, which he had entered with the object of giving some
instruction as to the day's ride, "take her altogether, I never saw a
girl so fit as Miss Mountjoy." There was something very remarkable in
this speech, as, according to his usual habit of life, Anderson would
certainly have called her Florence, whereas his present appellation
showed an unwonted respect.

"What do you mean when you say that a young lady is fit?" said Mr. Blow.

"I mean that she is right all round, which is a great deal more than can
be said of most of them."

"The divine Florence--" began Mr.