ys.--Spicer, look out, and see if they are coming."

"And do you mean to say you'll not come?" whispered a very soft voice,
after the crowd had passed on.

"Charmante Molly!" said Lord Lackington, in his most dulcet of accents,
"I am quite heart-broken at the disappointment; but when I tell you
that this man has come some hundreds of miles to meet me here,--that the
matter is one of deepest importance--"

"And who is he? Could you make him come too?"

"Impossible, _ma belle_. He is quite unsuited to this kind of thing,--a
mere creature of parchments. The very sight of him would only suggest
thoughts of foreclosing mortgages and renewal fines."

"How I hate him!"

"Do, dearest,--hate him to your heart's content,--and for nothing more
than the happiness of which he robs me."

"Well, I 'm sure, I did think--" And she stopped, and seemed confused.

"And what, pray, was it that you did think?" said his Lordship, most
winningly.

"I thought two things, then, if you must know," said she, archly:
"first, that a great personage like your Lordship would make a very
small one like this Mr. Dunn understand it was his duty to await your
convenience; and my second thought was--But perhaps you don't care to
hear it?"

"Of all things. Pray go on."

"Well, then, my second was that if I asked you to come, you'd not refuse
me."

"What an inexorable charmer it is!" cried he, in stage fashion. "Do you
fancy you could ever forgive yourself if, yielding to this temptation, I
were really to miss this man?"

"You told me yourself, only yesterday," said she, "_ce que femme
veut_--Besides, you'll have him all day tomorrow, and the next, and--"

"Well, so be it. See how I hug my chains!" said he, drawing her arm
within his, and moving on towards the boat.

"Were you to be of that party, Baron?" asked Dunn, pointing to the crowd
beside the lake.

"So I was. The Princess engaged me last night; they are going to the
Plinniana and Bellaggio. Why not join us?"

"Oh, I have a score of letters to write, and double as many to read. In
fact, I have kept all my work for a quiet day in this nice tranquil spot
I wish I could take a week here."

"And why not do it? Have n't you yet learned that it is the world's duty
to wait on _us?_ For my own part, I have always found that one emerges
from these secluded places with renewed energy and awakened vigor. I
heard Stadeon once say that when anything puzzled him, he went to pass
a day at Mar