ighing like horse, or by the
incessant rolling of my visual organs; though she did only attribute
such _ad misericordiam_ appeals to the excessive gravity of the cheese,
or the immaturity of the rhubarb pie.

But I was then a labourer under the impression that I was the odd man
out of her affections, and it is well known that, to a sensitive, it is
intolerable to feel that oneself is not the object of adoration, even to
one to whom we may entertain but a mediocre attraction.

On a recent evening we had a _tete-a-tete_ which culminated in the utter
surprise. It was the occasion of our hebdomadal dancing-party at
Porticobello House, and I had solicited her to become a copartner with
this unassuming self in the maziness of a waltz; but, not being the
carpet-knight, and consequently treading the measure with too great
frequency upon the toes of my fair auxiliary, she suggested a temporary
withdrawal from circulation.

To which I assenting, she conducted me to a landing whereon was a small
glazed apartment, screened by hangings and furnished with a profusion of
unproductive pots, which is styled the conservatory, and here we did sit
upon two wicker-worked chairs, and for a while were mutually _sotto
voce_.

Presently I, remarking with corner of eye the sumptuousness of her
appearance, and the supercilious indifference of her demeanour, which
made it seem totally improbable that she should ever, like _Desdemona_,
seriously incline to treat me as an _Othello_, commenced to heave the
sighs of a fire-stove, causing Miss JESSIMINA to accuse me of desiring
myself in India.

I denied this with native hyperbolism, saying that I was content to
remain in _statu quo_ until the doom cracked, and that the conservatory
was for me the equivalent of Paradise.

She replied that its similitude to Paradise would be more startling if a
larger proportion of the pots had contained plants, and if such plants
as there were had not fallen into such a lean and slippered stage of
decrepitude, adding that she did perpetually urge her mamma to incur the
expense of some geranium-blooms and a few fairy-lamps, but she had
refused to run for such adornments.

[Illustration: "I BECAME ONCE MORE THE SILENT TOMB."]

And I, with spontaneous gallantry, retorted that she was justified in
such parsimony, since her daughter's eyes supplied such fairy
illumination, and upon her cheeks was a bloom brighter than many
geraniums. But this compliment she unhapp