te. If Lady Catharine could only have seen him more cheerful, she
would have been _too_ happy. It was her great delight to try and spoil
him, as she used to do when he was a child--trying to suit his tastes to
the minutest shade. For instance, Guy was always finding in his own
rooms some new ornament or addition to their comfort. Indifferent as he
was to every thing, it was good in him that he never failed to remark
these instantly. You would not have thought a cold, haughty face could
light up so brilliantly as his mother's always did when he thanked her.
Poor lady! Those last few years were her summer of St. Martin--not the
less pleasant because winter was gathering already on the crests of the
whitening hills.

There were a good many guests in the house at times, almost invariably
men, but none of the wild revels of the old days, very little hard
drinking, and no play to speak of.

One thing was remarkable--the great eagerness Guy displayed to keep the
party together at night. He would engage us in arguments, and employ all
sorts of ingenious devices to prevent us from going to bed, so that it
became very trying to a weak constitution. I observed this to him one
night when the rest had gone.

The slight flush left by the excitement of conversation was vanishing
rapidly from his cheeks, and a gray tinge was creeping over them like
that which we see on a sick man very near his end.

"It is too bad to keep you up, and too selfish," he said; "but I find
the nights so long!"

I left him without another word; but I lay long awake, haunted by that
haggard face and dreary eyes. I wish I did not see them so often still
in my dreams.

There were changes in other houses besides Kerton Manor, and a vacancy
in the most luxurious set of chambers in the Albany.

Duns, and rheumatic gout, and satiety had proved too much at last for
the patience of Sir Henry Fallowfield; so one night he preached his
farewell sermon in the smoking-room of the ----, in which he was
especially severe and witty on the absurdity and bad taste of a man
condescending to suicide under any circumstances. The next morning they
found him with--"that across his throat that you had scarcely cared to
see." The hand whose tremor used to make him so savage when he was
lifting a glass to his lips, had been strong and steady enough when it
shattered the Golden Bowl and cut the Silver Cord asunder.

Whether he was looking death in the face while he uttered tho