o make them late in getting to the theatre; so that
perforce they had to leave these peaceful glades of the Green Park and
get into Piccadilly, where they jumped into a hansom-cab and were
rapidly whirled away eastward.

But if Lionel was to be reproached for his lack of ambition, that was a
charge which could not be brought against certain of those fashionable
friends of his at whom Nina (in unconscious collusion with Maurice
Mangan) seemed inclined to look askance. At the very height of the
London season Lady Adela Cunyngham and her sisters, Lady Sybil and Lady
Rosamund Bourne, had taken the town by storm; and it seemed probable
that, before they departed for Scotland, they would leave quite a trail
of glory behind them in the social firmament. The afternoon production
of "The Chaplet," in the gardens of Sir Hugh's house on Campden Hill,
had been a most notable festivity, doubtless; but then it was a
combination affair; for Miss Georgie Lestrange had shared in the honors
of the occasion; moreover, they had professional assistance given them
by Mr. Lionel Moore. It was when the three sisters attacked their own
particular pursuits that their individual genius shone, and marked
success had attended their separate efforts. His royal highness, the
commander-in-chief, it is true, had not as yet invited the colonels of
the British army to recommend Lady Sybil's "Soldiers' Marching Song" to
the band-masters of the various regiments, but, in default of that, this
composition was performed nightly, as the concluding ceremony, at the
international exhibition then open in London; and as the piece was
played by the combined bands of the Royal Marines, with the drums of the
1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, the Highland Pipers of the 2d Battalion
Scots Guards, and the drums of the 2d Battalion Grenadier Guards, the
resultant noise was surely sufficient to satisfy the hungriest vanity of
any composer, professional or amateur, who ever lived. Then not only had
Lady Rosamund exhibited a large picture at the Lansdowne Gallery (a
decorative work this was, representing the manumission of a slave, with
the legend underneath, "_Hunc hominem liberum esse volo_"), but also the
proprietors of an illustrated weekly newspaper had published in their
summer number, as a colored supplement, what she had ventured to call
"An All-the-year-round Valentine." She had taken the following rhyme (or
perhaps some one had found it for her)--

"In these fa