is is our first visit," replied the duchess.

"Ah! that is real friendship. She came down to Vauxe the other day, but
I did not think she was looking well. She frets herself too much about
her boys; she does not know what to do with them. They will not go into
the Church, and they have no fortune for the Guards."

"I understood that Lord Plantagenet was to be a civil engineer," said
Lady Corisande.

"And Lord Albert Victor to have a sheep-walk in Australia," continued
Lady St. Jerome.

"They say that a lord must not go to the bar," said Miss Arundel. "It
seems to me very unjust."

"Alfred Beaufort went the circuit," said Lady Corisande, "but I believe
they drove him into Parliament."

"You will miss your friend Bertram at Oxford," said the duchess,
addressing Lothair.

"Indeed," said Lothair, rather confused, for he was himself a defaulter
in collegiate attendance. "I was just going to write to him to see
whether one could not keep half a term."

"Oh! nothing will prevent his taking his degree," said the duchess, "but
I fear there must be some delay. There is a vacancy for our county--Mr.
Sandstone is dead, and they insist upon returning Bertram. I hope he
will be of age before the nomination. The duke is much opposed to it; he
wishes him to wait; but in these days it is not so easy for young men to
get into Parliament. It is not as it used to be; we cannot choose."

"This is an important event," said Lothair to Lady Corisande.

"I think it is; nor do I believe Bertram is too young for public life.
These are not times to be laggard."

"There is no doubt they are very serious times," said Lothair.

"I have every confidence in Bertram--in his ability and his principles."

The ladies began to talk about the approaching drawing-room and Lady
Corisande's presentation, and Lothair thought it right to make his
obeisance and withdraw. He met in the hall Father Coleman, who was in
fact looking after him, and would have induced him to repair to the
father's room and hold some interesting conversation, but Lothair was
not so congenial as usual. He was even abrupt, and the father, who
never pressed any thing, assuming that Lothair had some engagement,
relinquished with a serene brow, but not without chagrin, what he had
deemed might have proved a golden opportunity.

And yet Lothair had no engagement, and did not know where to go or what
to do with himself. But he wanted to be alone, and of all persons in the
world