mockery; for, if there were sympathy in sweet roses and pure
white lilies, on no other spot of God's earth would they have withered
so soon: she hung up no wreath of _immortelles_; for, if such things
could be, the dearest wish one could have formed for the dead man's soul
would have been swift, utter annihilation.

Yet Fanny Challoner would scarcely have accepted Mohun's good offices if
she had guessed that the blood of her seducer and tyrant was on his
hand. She never suspected it, and so went gratefully to the home he
found for her; and there she lives yet, tranquil and contented, though
always sad and humble, among people who know nothing of her history and
love her dearly, trying her best to be useful in her generation--alone
in her cottage, that nestles under a sunny cliff, just above the white
spray-line of the Irish Sea.

CHAPTER XXV.

"Let me see her once again.
Let her bring her proud dark eyes,
And her petulant quick replies;
Let her wave her slender hand
With its gesture of command,
And throw back her raven hair
With the old imperial air;
Let her be as she was then--
The loveliest lady in all the land
Iseult of Ireland."

Mohun and Livingstone soon fell back into the groove of their old
habits; if any thing, the former was more forbidding and morose, the
latter more reckless than ever.

Just at this time Mrs. Bellasys and her daughter arrived in Paris. It
was Flora's _debut_ there, and she had an immense success. The _jeunesse
doree_ of the Chaussee d'Antin and the cavaliers of the Faubourg
thronged about her, emulously enthusiastic. Her repartees and sarcasms
were quoted like Talleyrand's. They never wearied in raving over her
perfections, taking them in a regular catalogue--from her magnificent
eyes and hair, that flashed back the light from its smooth bands like
clouded steel, down to the small _brodequins_ of white satin, which it
was her fancy to wear instead of the ball-room _chaussure_ of ordinary
mortals. The intrigues to secure her for a waltz or a mazurka displayed
diplomatic talent enough to have set half a dozen German principalities
and powers by the ears. The succession of admirers was never broken; as
fast as one dropped off, killed by her coldness or caprice, another
stepped into his place. It reminded one of the old "Die-hards" at
Waterloo, filling up their squares torn and ravaged by the pelting
grape-shot.

Here,