I have no
words for my admiration of her, as, splendidly dressed and glittering
with diamonds, she swept proudly in. That her beauty could have been
so heightened by mere toilette seemed incredible, and as she read my
wonderment in my face she smiled, and said:--

"Yes, Digby, I am looking my very best to _fete_ your birthday."

I would have liked to have told her how lovely she appeared to me, but I
could only blush and gaze wonder-ingly on her.

"Button this glove, dear," said she, handing to me her wrist all
weighted and jingling with costly bracelets; and while, with trembling
fingers, I was trying to obey her, my father entered and came towards
us. He made her a low but very distant bow, tapped me familiarly on the
shoulder, and then moved across to an arm-chair and sat down.

Cleremont now came in, and, drawing a chair beside my father's, leaned
over and said something in a whisper. Not seeming to attend to what he
was saying, my father snatched, rather than took, the bundle of letters
he held in his hand, ran his eyes eagerly over some of them, and then,
crushing the mass in his grasp, he threw it into the fire.

"It is forty minutes past eight," said he, calmly, but with a deadly
pallor in his face. "Can any one tell me if that clock be right?"

"It is eight or ten minutes slow," said Hotham.

"Whom do we wait for, Cleremont?" asked my father again.

"Steinmetz was _de service_ with the King, but would come if he got
free; and there's Rochegude, the French Secretary, was to replace his
chief. I 'm not quite sure about the Walronds, but Craydon told me
positively to expect _him_."

"Do me the favor to ring the bell and order dinner," said my father; and
he spoke with measured calm.

"Won't you wait a few minutes?" whispered Cleremont. "The Duke de
Frialmont, I'm sure, will be here."

"No, sir; we live in a society that understands and observes
punctuality. No breach of it is accidental. Dinner, Nixon!" added he as
the servant appeared.

The folding-doors were thrown wide almost at once, and dinner announced.
My father gave his arm to Madame Cleremont, who actually tottered as she
walked beside him, and as she sat down seemed on the verge of fainting.
Just as we took our places, three young men, somewhat overdressed,
entered hurriedly, and were proceeding to make their apologies for being
late; but my father, with a chilling distance, assured them they were in
excellent time, and motioned them to be